


A Classroom Slow Dance

by TurtleLady17



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, BAMF Allura (Voltron), Human!Allura, Implied Relationships, M/M, Matt Shiro and Allura are total bros, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pining Hunk (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Shunk, Shunk - freeform, human!coran, teenagers are nosy little shits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-10-10 21:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10447527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleLady17/pseuds/TurtleLady17
Summary: Hunk Garrett is the new Mechanics teacher at Marmora High School.Shiro is the AP Literature teacher for the Juniors and Seniors.Upon meeting, sparks fly. But unfortunately, the students are a lot more perceptive than the teachers give them credit for, and of course take matters into their own hands.





	1. Who Are You, and Why Are You So Cute?

**Author's Note:**

> A tremendous thank you to the two amazing betas [RedBowBuddha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBowBuddha) and [DYlogger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DYlogger/pseuds/DYlogger) for helping me fix up this giant slop of a fic (at least this chapter so far). 
> 
> I swear the English language will be the complete death of me.

Hunk Garrett takes in a deep breath as he stands outside the doors of Marmora High School.

It’s his first day as a full-time teacher at a new location and he’s excited, but also nervous. He’s excited because he gets to teach what he loves best to inspire a new generation of potential engineers, and nervous because he has no idea what his fellow teachers are going to be like, let alone know what the environment is going to be like. He didn’t have a very accommodating time in the last place he was in – and it didn’t help that he was a substitute and part of adjunct faculty either. But, this is a new place and thus a new beginning, so he isn’t going to linger on the past and – checking his watch – he isn’t going to be late either.

Hunk steels himself, and enters the building at the entrance he was informed of. Walking straight down the empty hall, he takes in the purple, black, and gold color schemes and a rather colorful and energetic school mural. It is an interesting kaleidoscope of motifs and color, but the setup gives the school the perfect energy needed to get Hunk through the day. Already, he can feel his excitement slowly build up and replace his nervousness.

He steps into the main office, and immediately he’s greeted by the secretary who was in the middle of setting up her station. She looks up and shoots him a big smile.

“Good morning! You must be – and please correct me if I pronounce this wrong – Tsuyoshi Garett, am I correct?”

“Yup, you got it! But please, just call me Hunk.”

She nods and another door to his left opens to reveal a tall, native man, with a narrow face, high cheekbones, and a long braid resting down his back. He sees Hunk and immediately grins at the younger man.

“Hunk! It’s always great to see you!” He steps forward to give Hunk a big hug.

“Hey Van! Likewise, I’m just excited to start,” Hunk responds, squeezing the other man.

Kolivan, the principal of the school, pats Hunk on his shoulder with a nod. “I’m glad to hear that. Oh,” He turns to the woman Hunk just spoke to. “This is Sylvia, one of the secretaries working the front desk. Her and Ulaz pretty much run the school, I’m just the face.” The man jokes, and Sylvia rolls her eyes with a light huff.

“Don’t sell yourself so short, Kol.” She pipes back, and Kolivan waves her off.

“C’mon, let me take you to the Teacher’s Lounge to introduce you to the rest of the faculty.” Kolivan, keeping his hand on Hunk’s shoulder, escorts him back out into the hallway. “You already know what this school is all about, so I’ll spare you the details.” He continues.

Both men joked around and chattered about the school itself and other issues that plagued the city’s Board of Education. They came to a stop before the door of the teacher’s lounge, and Kolivan turned to Hunk.

“Are you ready to meet everyone?”

Hunk takes a deep breath with a bit of a nervous smile. “I swear this feels like the first day of kindergarten all-over again.”

Kolivan snorts with a cocked eye-brow. “Do you want me to hold your hand?”

Hunk’s expression goes immediately into a deadpan, and Kolivan laughs out loud as he pushes the door open.

 

\----

 

Shiro sighs into his morning coffee, leaning against the counter next to the coffee machine. It’s the first day back at school for a new year, and he is  _not_  a morning person. He takes a sip and glances over to where his best friends are sitting. The coffee gives him the warmth and the energy he needs to at least get him to go over and sit with the other teachers.

“Hey, Shiro, you ready to meet your new class of students?” Matt asks while pouring himself another cup of coffee from his thermos.

“I sure the fuck am not.” Allura mutters, shifting forward to rest her head onto the table surface. Shiro chuckles, and she flips him off without lifting her head.

“’Lura, you know it’s not gonna be too bad.”

“You say that every year,” She replies, lifting her head with a squint. “and yet, every year I seem to get stuck with the one class that likes to get on my nerves within the first two weeks and stick to it until I blow a gasket –”

“A really colorful one.” Matt quickly adds, and looks away at Allura’s accusing expression.

“ – four months in.”

“Well think of it this way,” Shiro says with an encouraging smile. “Four months is a record. Maybe this year, you can push it to five, maybe even six.”

“And maybe this year, you can shut up,” Allura grouses, pulling at a strand of her rainbow-dyed hair. “Maybe even push it to fucking off.”

Shiro shoots her a cheeky grin, while Matt struggles not to choke on his coffee in laughter.

“Hey,” Shiro holds his hands up in a mollifying manner, with the grin still in place. “I’m not looking to be on your shit list this year.”

“Then I expect silence from you.” Allura says, narrowing her eyes at both Shiro and Matt.  She lowers her head back onto her arms with a groan, and Matt pats her head.

Shiro lowers his own arms and wraps his hands around his half-finished cup of coffee with a laugh. Matt is chattering a mile a minute about what he expects in the upcoming year, and the other teacher nods, feeling the same excitement from his shorter friend.

The door opens, and Kolivan appears, closely followed by a rather tall and hulking man. Conversations tapers to silence as all eyes drift over to the two arrivals in the room – mainly straying to the bigger man behind the principal.

“Good morning, everyone.” Kolivan starts. “I hope you all had an opportunity to rest up for the start of the new year.” He pauses and holds back an eye-roll and chuckle at the various exaggerated groans. “Good!” He claps his hands together. “Everyone, this is Hunk Garrett, Marmora High’s newest Mechanics teacher.” He gestures to the man behind him, who steps up and give a bit of a nervous wave in greeting.

“Wow,” Allura whispers. “We’ve got a replacement already? That was certainly quick.” Shiro can’t help but agree, but he is initially excited to meet his new co-worker. “He’s really cute too.” She includes in a sly tone, and Shiro gives her A  _Look._

Each teacher goes up to Hunk and shakes his hand, introducing themselves with what subject they teach. Hunk greets them back, feeling a little more than relieved at their warm reception. He glances up in time to see Matt walk over, and he gives the shorter man a bright smile.

“Hey, Matt!” He says, pulling Matt into a hug. “It’s great to see you again.”

“Oh? You two know each other?” Allura asks as she walks up to introduce herself, closely followed by Shiro. “I’m Allura, by the way. I teach art on the second floor.”

“Oh, hi Allura! Very pretty name.” Hunk answers, blushing at the lovely woman, and reaches out to grasp her hand into a shake. “And yeah, Matt and I know each other through his sister, Pidge.” He nods, and glances over to the third person in their group and nearly stops breathing.

The other man appears to be in his late twenties, about his height with jet black hair in an unusual, military cut with a shock of silver falling upon his forehead. He has a long scar perched over the bridge of his nose, but it only seems to amplify how gorgeous he is.

Shiro’s mind drew a blank, as he was standing face to face with a man about his height with a warm aura and such sweet dimples on his cheeks from his soft smile.

The glance between Allura and Matt goes completely unnoticed – as well as Kolivan’s rather knowing smile.

“Hi, I’m Takashi Shirogane,” Shiro begins, willing himself to calm down. “But everyone just calls me Shiro, I teach AP Literature for the juniors and seniors. Welcome to our school, Hunk.”

Hunk steels himself to prevent from acting a fool and leaving a lasting impression on his new co-workers – especially Professor McHottie.

“It’s nice to meet you, Shiro…that means ‘white’ in Japanese, right?” Hunk supplies a little nervously, because of course that’s what comes out of his mouth. He can never keep his mouth properly connected to his brain. Why would Shiro want to know that? This is not the conversation starter that is currently needed. And yet. “That’s really pretty.” He immediately shut himself up. “Wait, why did I say that?” He stops again. “And thank you.”

Allura and Matt snigger as Kolivan raises his eyebrows.

“Did I mention that he is very eloquent?” Kolivan says, and Hunk just groans and buries his face into his hands as Allura and Matt laugh a little harder.

“Ugh, you guys are never going to let me live this down, huh?” He mutters, and Kolivan just grins.

Hunk glances over to Shiro in time to see him chuckle with an amused smile.

“It’s okay, Hunk,” The other teacher holds out a hand for Hunk to shake. “I tend to let my nerves get the best of me sometimes, too.”

Hunk blushes and reaches out to shake Shiro’s hand, noting that Shiro’s grip is firm and warm.

Shiro makes the same observation, and both men marvel at each other’s presence.

The sound of teenagers chattering in the hallway, snaps the two of them out of their trance.

“Ah, that means that class is going to start soon.” Kolivan steps closer. “I’ll show you to your room so you can get set up for your new students.” He’s about to escort Hunk out, when Shiro steps forward.

“Wait, actually, I can take him there.”

Hunk glances over to him in surprise, missing the confirming looks that Allura, Matt, and Kolivan were giving each other yet again.

“It’s pretty much on the way to my classroom, since his room is right by the staircase.” Shiro’s heart is pounding rapidly in his chest, hoping that it’s an acceptable offer. Kolivan smiles and nods, patting Hunk on the shoulder.

“Of course!” He glances over to Hunk. “I’ll see you later. You’ll let me know how your day goes, okay?”

Hunk flashes him a thumbs up and Kolivan leaves with the other teachers. Allura gives Shiro a knowing look (Shiro tries not to blush) and gives Hunk a big smile and a “Good Luck” on her way out. Matt punches Shiro on the shoulder and echoes Allura’s farewell and good luck.

“I’m in room 315, if you want to stop by.” He adds, and Hunk thanks him.

Now, Shiro and Hunk are the only two left in the room.

“So, uh, mind showing me where I’m gonna be teaching?” Hunk’s voice snaps Shiro out of his thoughts, and he blushes lightly.

“Yeah, I-I’m sorry, I get a little absentminded sometimes.”

Hunk chuckles, still struck at how seriously cute a man like Shiro is – especially with pink dusting across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks.

“It’s all good, man. I appreciate you helping out.”

“Ah, well, I just want to be sure that you’ll be well adjusted.”

With that, Shiro leads Hunk out into the now busy hallway, full of students catching up with their friends and trying to figure out where their new homeroom will be. A couple of heads start to turn at Hunk’s presence and whispers start to rise, but neither one of them are paying any attention.

They approach a slightly smaller and shorter hallway that leads towards the back of the school, and Shiro stops in front of a door. He pushes it open and both enter the rather spacious room.

“Wow, this is my room?” Hunk asks in amazement, setting his bag down on his desk and glancing about.

“Yup, it’s pretty much half an entire wing. A lot of physical experiments and projects happen down here, so it only made sense to have this area for Mechanics.” He slips his hands into his pockets, and nearly melts at the bright expression on Hunk’s face.

“Aw man, this is awesome!” Hunk exclaims. “I seriously can’t wait to have the students start fucking shit up in here.”

At this, Shiro lets out a surprised laugh, and Hunk huffs with an embarrassed smile and faint blush on his dimpled cheeks.

“Don’t worry, I don’t really curse very often, and never in front of kids.” Hunk then squints in thought. “Well, there was that one time I let my very impressionable baby cousin sit with me at my work shop, and I swear up a storm whenever I’m working. Needless to say, my aunt pretty much made that area of the house off limits to all children of the family.” He sniffs. “It doesn’t help that her toddler now has the word ‘shit’ in her vocabulary.” He makes a face and shakes his head. “Ah, sorry, I’m rambling.”

Shiro can’t help but give a full and hardy laugh at Hunk’s quirk. “That’s perfectly fine,” He says. “it’s a pretty interesting quality about you.” He bites his lip, quickly stopping himself before he launches into a list of compliments about a man he just met.  “But yeah, just be careful not to do so in front of the kids when Ulaz is around. He  _handed_  me my ass on a platter without batting an eye my second week here.” Hunk chuckles with an understanding expression.

“Yeah, Kol told me that Ulaz doesn’t play when it comes to the students.” Hunk agrees. They fall into a comfortable silence, silently observing each other, when the bell rings.

Shiro blinks and remembers that he needs to be in his classroom before the second bell. He gestures for Hunk to follow him, and without question, Hunk does and Shiro points to the staircase about a solid ten feet away from the doorway.

“Use these stairs to go to the second and third floor.” He gestures. “Allura’s classroom is room 206, the sunniest spot in the entire school. I’m a little further down, room 210. Right up here, actually.” He gestures to the general spot of his classroom right over his head and looks back at Hunk. “Don’t hesitate to come up and visit us, and we’ll do the same whenever we can.”

Hunk nods with a sunny grin. “Thanks a lot. Um, Shiro, right?”

The other man beams. “You got it.” He said softly, and both men fell into another comfortable silence, before Hunk squirms and gestures to the stairs.

“Better hurry before you’re late to class.”

‘ _For you? I’ll be late to anything._ ’ Shiro internally winces at the sudden thought. ‘ _What the hell is wrong with me?_ ’ He clears his throat. “Y-yeah, thanks  _professor._ ” Shiro fakes rolling his eyes and Hunk laughs, waving him off. “Good luck, and I’ll see you at lunch!” He says as he heads towards the stairs.

“Thanks a lot, man!” Hunk calls after him, before the other gets enveloped by rushing students. Before going inside, he overhears a student asking Shiro a question.

“Hey, Mr. Shirogane?”

“Oh hey Michael! It’s great seeing you, did you have a good summer?”

“Yeah I did. Did you? And I have a quick question: who was that?”

“It was pleasant, thank you for asking. And that’s Mr. Garrett, the new Mechanics teacher.”

Another student pipes up. “You guys were standing awfully close. Is he like, your boyfriend or something?” At this, he can hear Shiro stammer and admonish the student.

“Kayleen! That’s not appropriate! He’s a new teacher here, so you’ll be nice about it, alright?”

Hunk chuckles to himself, not picking up on the fact that a few of the students, who are already entering his room, are immediately noticing the blush on his cheeks.

 

\----

 

Lunch time rolls around much quicker than Hunk realizes, although his stomach was always the one to make the rather loud, official announcement before the bell, much to the amusement of his students.

“My belly  _never_  fails me when it comes to timing.” Hunk says rather proudly, patting his midsection as the bell rings, signaling the end of the class period. “Don’t forget to start reading chapter one in your books for Wednesday!”

“Mr. Garrett,” one student begins, “I thought that we were going to start doing projects and stuff.”

“And we will. Trust me, I wanna destroy sh- _stuff_  like the rest of you, but I’d rather you guys know what you’re doing and not burn your hands off.” He makes a gesture, then pauses. “And it would be nice if your vice principal didn’t catch wind on me almost cursing in front of you guys.” The students laugh and leave the room to get ready for lunch. As soon as everyone clears out, he takes a breath to gather himself. It is only his first day, and he is already overwhelmed by the high energy of the students, let alone his own homeroom kids. He’s grateful, incredibly so, at the fact that he has his own class to look after and be considered part of the full-time faculty.

He grabs his lunch from the mini fridge in the back room (another feature he legit geeked out over in front of his second period class without any shame), and heads out into the bustling hallway, locking his door behind him.

At the teacher’s lounge, he glances around until he sees an empty table by the window and grabs a seat. A few teachers approach him and ask how his day is going, and he tells them that so far none of the students have given him any trouble.

“But then again, this is the first day and it’s not even over yet.” He says, chuckling afterwards.

“My kids gave me trouble the first  _hour_.” Matt sighs, leaning against the table. “Allura has been here longer than me. So when she heard about it during lunch time, she literally screamed at the students when they were in her class the next period and since then, no one fucked with me  _and_  Allura.” He grins at Hunk’s impressed expression. “Shiro, too. The kids didn’t want to risk it seeing how close they are.”

That little fact piques Hunk’s interest and he shoves it to the back of his mind to mull over it later.

“Ah, speak of the devil, here she is now.” Matt raises his hand in greeting and Allura slaps it before crashing into the chair across Hunk.

“Hunk!” She exclaims, throwing her arms up, “How is your first day so far? Are the little imps giving you hell?”

Hunk shakes his head. “Nah, not in the least.”

Allura squints a little. “Are you sure? I’ll gladly fuck them up for you.”

At this, Matt snorts and Hunk nearly chokes on his food in surprise and laughter.

“ _Allura!_ ”

All three of them jump and look up to see Shiro with a rather stern expression on his face and a lunch tray in his hands. Hunk’s heart starts to pick up a bit, and he feels his facing warming. A lot.

“Oh hey, Shiro!” Allura greets him enthusiastically without batting an eyelid, and Shiro sighs. He glances over to Hunk and gives what Hunk swears is a gentle and  _shy_  smile. He looks over to Allura again, and narrows his eyes as she grins impishly and blows him a kiss. Matt laughs, and Shiro lets out a huff as he sits next to Allura, directly across from Hunk.

“Alright, that’s my cue to get some food before it’s too late.” Matt moves towards the door. “I’ll see you guys around. Oh, Allura, you said you wanted CinnaBon, right?” Allura nearly jumps out of her seat in excitement.

“You are so good to me!” Allura begins, getting out of her seat and stretching. “I’ll see you later!” She drops her arms and grabbed a tangerine from the table. “Alright, sorry to cut my time short, but I  _must_  get back to class.” She pouts.

Hunk raises an eyebrow. “Oh, this isn’t your lunch period?” Allura shakes her head.

“Nah, I switched out with Matt.” She shrugged. “I just didn’t feel like being in a room full of imps right now. But alas, I must return and tolerate them for another forty-five minutes…wish me luck!” She sends both men a wink. “Good luck on the rest of your day, Hunk!” She quickly leaves the room with a flourish.

Hunk chuckles after her departure, smiling warmly to Shiro. “She’s a real riot, isn’t she?”

Shiro nods with a laugh of his own. “She’s essentially the star of her own show at this school. It’s hard to keep up with her at first, but she’ll keep you energized at least.” He smiles fondly, and Hunk can’t help but question the bond between the two. “So, how are you? How is your first day going so far?”

Hunk begins to describe his day in a rather straightforward manner, and Shiro quickly picks up on how expressive the other teacher was at retelling the events of the first half of his day. He sits, mesmerized, latching onto every word the bigger man told.

“Okay, so before I ask about your day.” Hunk takes a bit of a detour. “What,” he points at the food on Shiro’s tray with a mildly offended expression on his face. “Is that?”

Shiro startles out of his spell and glances down, curious to know what exactly was on his tray to warrant such an expression and action from Hunk. “What do you mean?”

Hunk just squints at him, keeping himself from rolling his eyes. “That looks  _far_  from healthy, how can you stand eating that?” He asks.  _‘And still manage to stay buff and very fit, what the fuck? Totally not fair.’_

Shiro just looks sheepish and glances away, rubbing at his scar – to which Hunk quickly notes may be a nervous habit. “A-ah, well, I’m not a very good cook, so I just find it easier to get lunch from here.”

“This is unacceptable,” Hunk begins, setting his face on absolute determination and crossing his arms. “I am  _not_  about to let you suffer from this – whatever this is – and just watch you become it.” He huffs. “I’m totally making you lunch from now on.” This is rather bold coming from Hunk on his first day at a new job to a stranger – a really,  _really,_  hot stranger, Hunk is not ashamed to admit it – but food with bad presentation (and perhaps bad nutritional value) is  _not_  something Hunk takes very lightly.

“O-oh, you don’t have to! It’s okay, really!” The other man is in shock at the bold offer (declaration, more like – Shiro’s heart did  _not_  just skip a beat). He’s trying to keep from biting his lip in self-control as the other man set his face in stubbornness and sheer determination.  _‘How is he so handsome like this? I am_ not _gonna make it by the end of the day.’_

“Nope,” He keeps his arms crossed, and shoots the other man a smirk – Shiro is also  _not screaming internally, dammit!_  – “As long as I am around, you’re gonna eat better. Best believe that.”

Shiro blinks at his new co-worker, not knowing how to properly respond to that answer without sounding like a strange idiot. He finds it hard to argue against that somewhat cute but firmly attractive expression on Hunk’s face. So, he blurts out the most familiar sentence in his vocabulary:

“Alright,” It comes out so softly. “Thank you, Hunk.” 

 _‘Oh.’_  Hunk is stunned into silence, blushing furiously and hoping that his skin is dark enough to hide the red tint quickly showing up on his face.

 

\----

 

By the end of his first month, and well into his second month, Hunk Garrett was an absolute hit with the students. He has created an environment in which students can learn and have room to be creative in a safe way (It’s also widespread that a high five from Hunk before or after class brings in good luck for the student’s school work for the day. A _lot_  of kids who don’t even take his class go up to him for a bit of motivation). At this point, he’s already mentoring one student on her senior project – a self-sufficient helper bot. He and his homeroom students have also started to work with Allura and her students in a collaboration project that would allow the students to create a new art piece to display in the school lobby. They are currently in the brainstorming phase, in hopes to settle on an unanimously agreed design for the art piece to be created and placed into the lobby by the end of the year.

At the current time, Hunk has managed to rope himself into a rather friendly competition with the resident Lunchman Coran – who is Allura’s rather eccentric uncle. This stemmed from Coran learning about Hunk making meals for Shiro through the faculty grapevine (Allura), and storming up to Hunk’s classroom and confronting him about it. Strangely enough, Coran wasn’t completely offended and they struck up a rather interesting friendship. It’s through his interactions with Allura’s uncle that he learns that the other man also loves experimentation through food and machines and invites him to help with class projects and overall demonstrations.

And with every interaction Hunk has with Shiro – he falls deeper and deeper.

 

\----

 

Shiro sits back at his desk as his students leave in a hurry to get to their lockers and go to lunch. So far, he’s having a good day. The lesson went very well, the students were very engaged, and there were very few tangents – as they were frequent in his room, and he’s usually good about keeping everyone on topic. However, he will not hesitate to shove all that he had planned, to facilitate a hot topic that comes up with the reading or whatever they were analyzing that day.

“Mr. Shirogane?” A gaggle of students stand at his desk, snapping him out of his revere.

“Yes, what can I do for you?” He asks, sitting up to give them his full attention.

“Okay so we were wondering that…” And for the next several minutes, Shiro explains the context of the topic that was discussed earlier, answering question after question, until he hears a knock at the door. The small group look over to see Hunk standing in the doorway with a grin and holds up a bag of what is assumed to be food. Shiro lights up – which of course doesn’t escape the notice of his students – and he beckons Hunk into the room.

“Hi, Mr. Garrett!” The students chime enthusiastically, and Hunk smiles at them.

“Hey guys!” He waves and stands off to the side to wait for Shiro to finish.

“Any more questions?” The students shake their heads. “Good, now get out of here.”

The students start shoving each other towards the door, but pause to speak to Hunk.

“What you got there, Mr. Garrett?”

“Food.”

A gasp from one of the girls in the group. “Aw, for me? You shouldn’t have!” She pretends to make a show for grabbing, and Hunk moves it out of her reach with a laugh.

“Nice try, Margaret, now go before you miss lunch.”

“You eat with Mr. Shirogane?” Another student asks, and Hunk shrugs.

“Only sometimes. Other times I hang out with Miss Allura.” He answers. “Please go before I give you all detention.”  _That_  immediately earns him a chorus of protests and a laugh from Shiro, as he made a ‘shoo-ing’ motion with his hands, and the students leave reluctantly, saying goodbye to both teachers.

As soon as the students are out of earshot, Hunk sighs and walks over to Shiro and places the bag onto the desk top. “I swear, teens are the nosiest people I have ever encountered in my entire life.” He grumbles, removing the contents of the bag.

“Well, they’re naturally curious, you can’t really blame them.” Shio says in amusement. “Besides, we were teens once. And if I didn’t know any better, that part of your curiosity has probably never changed.”

Hunk looks up to see Shiro looking at him with a fond expression, and he stares. Shiro catches this and they both quickly look away with bright red faces.

“Ah, well I brought you something special today, just thought you’d like to try it.” Hunk pulled out a container that was covered with a plastic lid, and set it gently onto the table.

Shiro leaned forward in interest, resting his hands flat against the surface of the desk.

“Hunk, thank you, really, but you know you didn’t have to do this.” He says, and Hunk looks up with a pointed expression.

“Dude, it’s fine. I want to do this, and besides,  _someone_  needs to look after you.” He raises an eyebrow at the other teacher.

Shiro presses his bionic hand against his chest as a look of mock offense appears on his face.

“How  _dare_  - excuse you, I take care of myself just  _fine_ , thank you very much.” He huffs, biting back a smile.

Hunk just  _laughs,_  and Shiro can’t help but stare at the dimples making their appearance on Hunk’s cheeks.  _‘Oh no, he’s_ really _cute.’_  He thinks in dismay, and looks down at his now clenched hands - a telltale sign of his nervousness.

“Oh man, you’re something else.” Hunk manages to say in between laughs. “I’m sure you can take care of yourself just fine, but there’s nothing wrong with having extra hands to make life a little easier, you know?”

Shiro takes in a deep breath and wills himself to calm down enough to unclench his hands, his bionic one taking a second longer to respond. He looks up and gives Hunk a kind smile, in hopes that the other man does not take note of his nervous energy.

“So,” he begins. “What did you bring for today’s lunch?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Hunk says with a big grin, and launches into an explanation about the meal he prepared for the both of them. He becomes very animated as he arranges various containers and gives a specific explanation on which food goes with another.

For perhaps the umpenteenth time at this point into the semester, Shiro finds himself utterly enraptured by Hunk’s explanations. It isn’t even the explanation itself, but it has more to do with how animated and expressive the other man is. Hunk’s hands flutter with every description he makes. His eyes light up and sparkle in excitement and warmth, and his smile - no matter how big or small - would always reveal Shiro’s weakness: dimples.

“Hellooo? Earth to Shirogane!” Hunk’s voice rings out, and Shiro startles out of his thoughts and glances over to Hunk sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, Hunk,” he apologizes with a blush. “I just got distracted with...thoughts...”

“Hah, I’m sure you have.” Hunk says with an amused expression, and Shiro  _swears_  that he sees a light dusting of pink on Hunk’s face - but it can also just be his imagination. “Anyway, I present to you a dish from my homeland.”

He slides it forward, and Shiro takes it, his own human fingers briefly brushing against Hunk’s. The contact sent a tingling sensation up his arm and he resisted the urge to bite his lip.

“Thanks, Hunk.” Shiro responds softly.

Hunk nods, unable to respond verbally as of yet and sits down. He too noticed their fingers brushing and his skin is still tingling from the contact. He feels incredibly warm underneath his own skin, and internally counts down from ten to allow himself to remain calm and not say anything stupid.

“Oh!” Shiro exclaims and Hunk startles looking over to the older man and raises his eyebrows at the amazed expression on his face.

“Oh my god, Hunk, this is  _amazing_!” Shiro praises, and of course Hunk smiles through his initial surprise. “Did you seriously make this?”

“Thanks, and yeah, it’s one of my mom’s traditional recipes.” Hunk replies, feeling proud of himself. “I really love making them.”

“Wait, so, how long have you been cooking?”

Hunk sits back as he thinks for a bit. “Uhhh, well I’ve been helping my parents out in the kitchen for as long as I can remember, and I started to take over when I was barely thirteen.” He shrugs, and Shiro looks on in amazement.

“Did you ever think about becoming a chef?”

“Yes, but mechanics took over my life when I was sixteen.” Hunk says fondly. “I am happy with doing both either way since they are very similar to me in many ways.”

Shiro’s smile encourages him to expand, and he does. He explains the similarities in great detail, expressing that having both in his life just makes complete sense to him.

The conversation then shifts to Shiro’s history with Matt and Allura, informing Hunk of Shiro’s time in the military with Matt and meeting Allura after his honorable discharge. He admits that he did have feelings for her in the beginning, but it was clear that she preferred friendship, so they have remained solid friends since then. He mentions briefly that he got his bionic arm after losing his natural one in a convoy explosion.

“You don’t seem bothered with talking about it.” Hunk notes, and Shiro sighs with a small smile.

“I used to, for a long time,” he says. “But, it was a situation that I found myself getting used to. It already happened, so there wasn’t much that I can do about it then and not much I can do about it now.”

Hunk nods and smiles at Shiro in appreciation. “Thank you for sharing that with me, and thank you for serving our country.”

At this, Shiro ducks his head and rubs the back of his neck. “It’s…” He decides to drop what he was going to say and instead he says: “thanks for listening to me about this. Most would avoid trying to bring up anything related to the military - except other ex-soldiers.” He sighs. “I’ve also been yelled at by anti-war protestors, and frankly there are times when I wish I could do the same.”

At this, Hunk raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

Shiro hesitates and looks down at his now empty bowl. “Well, I…” He doesn’t know what to say exactly. He feels that it was too much to tell Hunk at the given moment, sensing that it is perhaps too early to tell him something so heavy.

“Shiro, are you alright?” Hunk asks softly, and honestly, Shiro isn’t sure how to answer that question.

He looks up at Hunk and gives him a small smile and a little shrug. “I’m sorry, I get like this from time to time.”

The other man frowns but doesn’t prod, understanding that this wasn’t the best conversation to have. They sit in a rather comfortable and yet awkward silence, more out of uncertainty than anything else. He reaches forward and brushes his fingers gently over Shiro’s flesh hand, with intention this time, and Shiro glances down at their hands with surprise.

Shiro’s lips quirk upwards into an even warmer smile, and he slowly moves his hand to entwine his own fingers with Hunk’s, feeling contentment deep within his chest.

The moment dissolves when the bell rings, indicating the end of the lunch period. Hunk quickly stands up, with Shiro blinking up at him a little startled at the action.

“W-well, that has been great! But, you know, time’s up and we gotta go back to being teachers!” Hunk is quickly putting the container and utensils he brought back into the bag.

“Um, yeah, it kind of sucks, huh?” Shiro can’t help but feel…disappointed? He honestly can’t tell, but he knew that he wanted that moment to last a little longer. But, it seems like Hunk didn’t share that sentiment as he is done packing and saying farewell.

“You alright?” He asks, and Shiro nods rather convincingly.

“Yeah I’m fine. I’ll see you later?” Was that disappointment in Hunk’s eyes? Did Hunk feel the same? He couldn’t tell since the younger man was already on his way towards the door.

“Yup! Later!”

He didn’t know what to think at this point.

 

\----

 

“Mr. Garrett?”

Hunk looks up from his lecture notes. “Yeah, Cassidy?”

“I heard that you bring food for Mr. Shirogane. Is that true?”

Hunk makes a face at her. “We just have lunch together. What does that have to do with the lesson?”

“I think we’ll do better if you bring us brownies.” Another student, Miguel, chimes in, and Hunk raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“Is that so?” He asks, and everyone nods. He gives a solid laugh. “Is that all that you guys see me as? A teacher to mooch brownies off from?”

“It’s just not fair that you only bring food for the other teachers, but not us.” Miguel continues, and Hunk rolls his eyes.

“Not to mention the fact that Mr. Shirogane seems to get  _special treatment_.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Do I even  _want_  to know what you’re insinuating with that?” He dares to ask, and no one answers his question.

“All we’re saying,” Cassidy picks up. “Is that it would be nice if we could have some brownies. That’s all.” She holds her hands up in a gesture of a peace offering.

Hunk huffs at his students’ antics and shakes his head. “You guys are something else.” He mutters. “Alright, since you make such a  _compelling_  argument, I’ll think about it.” The students give a cheer and he waves his hands. “Alright, let’s get back to the lesson!”

 

\----

 

It’s at this point, in the first week of November, that rumors are flying.

Again, Shiro tends to go off on a tangent about a hot topic within the discussion of the day with his classes, and today is no exception. Unfortunately, the students also know about his tendency to get flustered rather easily.

The students consistently use this to their advantage.

And unfortunately for Shiro, they know what will distract him in today’s lesson.

A student raises his hand.

“Yes, Charlie?” Shiro responds.

“Mr. Shirogane, going off the basis of rumors being harmful in this story, can you say that the current rumors are harmful no matter how they’re being spread?”

“Good question! I think that sometimes there is such thing as a good rumor. It may not be necessarily true, but it doesn’t mean that it can be inherently harmful – unless it gets blown out of proportion.” He raises an eyebrow. “What kind of rumors are going on to warrant this question?”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. Just a thing about a teacher.”

This catches his interest.

“A teacher?” He considers his next words carefully. “What is the nature of this rumor? I mean, if it’s about a teacher, I can probably dispel it for you guys.” At this, the entire class chitters amongst themselves. “Is it bad?”

“Oh no,” Another student responds. “It’s a pretty nice one actually. It’s about Mr. Garrett.”

“The Mechanics teacher?”

Heads nod, and Shiro’s mind jumps into overdrive.  _‘Did something happened in his class?’_

“Yeah, he just wouldn’t stop talking about you, Mr. Shirogane.” The student continues. “It’s seems like he really likes you.”

At this, the entire room holds a bated breath as Shiro’s cheeks flush a deep pink, but he wills himself to calm down and put himself into a logical mindset.

“If you’re implying that he likes me romantically, then you’ve probably misunderstood what is actually being said. It’s not possible anyway.”  _‘God, I wish.’_  He shifts in his spot. “Regardless, this has nothing to do with the lesson, so it would be nice if we can get back to it.” The words come out of his mouth rather quickly, as he dutifully ignores the giggles and raised eyebrows from his students. “N-not that I can’t say anything about it –”

“But Mr. Shirogane,” Charlie says, “We never said anything about Mr. Garrett liking you romantically.”

Shiro’s blush intensifies, upon realization that he literally walked right into that trap.

_‘Fuck.’_

He dutifully buries his face into the book he held in his hand, willingly ignoring every question being thrown at him about the topic, unintentionally and effectively indicating to his students that there is certainly some truth to that rumor – just not from Hunk’s end.

 

\----

 

Hunk’s classroom is no better.

The class is focused on their individual projects and Hunk is navigating the room, glancing over at everyone’s progress and making suggestions to improve certain aspects on everyone’s work. He walks over near the back corner of the room to a table, inspecting a particular group’s project and he overhears their conversation:

“Mr. Shirogane is seriously cool. He has such a great class.” One of them, Andrea, says.

“Right? I really appreciated yesterday’s Shakespearean Insult Corner.” Another sitting across from Andrea, named Jamie, says with a laugh. “I really hope he does that again.”

“Not to mention,” Jesse pipes up from focusing on his work in front of him. “He’s really,  _really_ , hot.” Hunk slows down, and raises an eyebrow as the other two chime their agreement and he exhales. That was true, but.

“ _Isn’t_  he? I mean, if he wasn’t my teacher, I’d totally go after him.”

“Andrea, I’m pretty sure he’s not your type…but same.”

“Jamie, he’s  _everyone’s_  type.”

“Kids, he’s your teacher.” The small group looks up at him with suspiciously innocent looks on their faces. “That’s not appropriate.”

“Yeah, but maybe not for you.” One of them counters, and Hunk just squints at them.

“That’s  _still_  not appropriate.”

“But, Mr. Garrett, I think he legit likes you!”

Hunk huffs and just rolls his eyes, waving it off with a laugh. “Yeah, well he’s a nice person, he likes  _everybody_. Almost as much as I like you guys  _paying attention and finishing your in-class assignment._  Like, right  _now._  Let’s.  _Go._ ” He claps his hands to emphasize his last point, and this seemingly discourages his students from further conversation about Shiro – but Hunk is certain that this will be brought up again in some fashion later.

He walks away, musing the idea of Shiro liking him.  _‘Would it be possible for him to like me back?’_  He was almost afraid of the answer.

 

\----

 

“My students think you’d make a good boyfriend for me.” Hunk announces, sitting in front of his co-worker, and Shiro just chokes on air.

“Wait,  _what?_ ” He manages to get out, desperately hoping that his blush wasn’t too obvious. He stares at Hunk with wide eyes, as the younger man recants overhearing the conversation he heard from his students from the previous class period. Hunk is laughing at the sheer ridiculousness, and Shiro laughs along with him, although it didn’t reach his eyes and he can’t help but feel a pang in his heart.

“Isn’t that silly?” Hunk finishes, pulling out a sandwich he made.

“Y-yeah, it’s pretty funny, although not unusual.” Shiro answers with a bit of a fake smile. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ve been the target of such conversations yourself.”

At that, Hunk shakes his head with another laugh. “Nah, I highly doubt it for two reasons: one, I wasn’t around long enough to really be taken seriously, and two, I really don’t think I’m much for a the Hot-High-School-Teacher. Maybe the cute one, but not really hot.”

 _‘Hunk, you have no damn clue, do you?’_  Shiro shifts in his seat and presses his lips. “Lies. I bet the other teachers were throwing themselves at you.”

At this, he swears that he sees pink appear on the younger man’s cheeks.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

Hunk sniffs and looks anywhere but Shiro. He sneaks a glance over at him, and sighs at Shiro’s knowing expression.

“I– yeah.” Hunk relents. “There was one teacher who showed a lot of interest in me.” He shifts, feeling uncomfortable. “But it didn’t get very far.” It doesn’t seem like he’s going to expand further. Shiro sighs, anxious at the probability of hitting a nerve, but he’s much too curious.

“What, was the problem?” At this, Hunk looks up at the other teacher, and Shiro holds up his hands. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me anything, it’s an invasive question.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Hunk waves it off, and looks down at his meal. “Let’s just say, that I wasn’t in a very good place at the time.”

Shiro nods in understanding, also picking up on Hunk’s tone that it was a subject that the other man isn’t very comfortable speaking about.

“Hey, Hunk,” Shiro begins. “Why don’t you come to the gym with me this Saturday?”

Hunk blinks at him, a grateful tone in his voice at the change in topic. “For real?”

Shiro nods, hope blossoming in his chest. “Yeah, it’ll be no trouble at all. Besides, I think it’s about time we start hanging out outside of school, don’t you?”

“Well yeah! That’s pretty awesome of you, thanks Shiro. I’m looking forward to it!” Hunk gives him a great big smile, and Shiro pretty much turns into a puddle at the sight of Hunk’s dimples.

The bell rings, signifying the end of their lunch period.

“Alright!” Hunk gets up and gathers his things. “I’ll see you later, man!”

“Yeah,” Shiro says softly as Hunk leaves, heart pounding. “I can’t wait either.”


	2. It's the Effort that Counts...Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Shiro tried.
> 
>  _Really_ tried.

 

**[06:30] Matt {beaker emoji} Holt**

_I still think it’s weird that you’re going on a date so early in the morning._

_To the gym no less._

_Not very romantic._

**[06:35] Shiro**

_And I think it’s unusual that you’re up before noon on a Saturday._

_And it’s not a date._  

**[06:37] Matt {beaker emoji} Holt**

_Dude, conference, remember?_

_And it totally is._

_Don’t deny it._

 

Shiro huffs a small chuckle, feeling his cheeks heat up.

 

**[06:37] Matt {beaker emoji} Holt**

_You’re totally blushing, aren’t you? :D_

**[06:39] Shiro**

_Shit, I forgot about that._

_And shut up._

_I need to finish getting ready._

**[06:41] Matt {beaker emoji} Holt**

_:P_

_Let me know how it goes!_

_And remember not to put out on the first date!_

**[06:42] Shiro**

_You’re such a little shit._

**[06:42] Matt {beakeremoji} Holt**

_< 3 <3 <3_

 

Shiro manages to turn off the alarm on his phone, seconds before it goes off. He’s been awake for a solid fifteen minutes now, getting ready for his morning – _‘Not date.’_ He reminds himself – at the gym with Hunk.

He still can’t believe that Hunk agreed to work out with him. He figured that this was either a blessing or some trick created by the Cosmos to make him the butt of all jokes (like his life is almost every day). But regardless, he wasn’t going to look the gift horse in the mouth and counts it as a win.

(But regardless, he counts this/it as a win and isn’t going to look the gift horse in the mouth.)

He buzzes about the apartment, trying to keep silent in order not to awaken his roommate Keith – who works the graveyard shift – and be subjected to his Grumpy Cat attitude for the rest of the day.

 

\----

 

Excited isn’t even the appropriate word to describe how Hunk is feeling so early on a weekend morning. Normally, he would sleep in until at least nine and get into various shenanigans with Lance for the entire day. Going to the gym is a twice a week kind of thing for him, so it borders on unusual that he’s up before seven-thirty in the morning for a third go at the gym this week.

Well, it was excusable since he was invited to go with the cutest guy he’s met within the past year and hang out with him _outside_ of work. Who is Hunk to miss out on seeing this Adonis get into shape, not to mention seeing his firm looking ass in a pair of spandex.

“Whoa there, Hunk,” He murmurs to himself, sitting down with a groan. “slow down before you embarrass yourself so damn early in the day.” It wouldn’t have been the first time he’s thought about Shiro like this. It’s just that one of Hunk’s fantasies is about to come to life very soon, and he’s a little nervous. The fact that he just may very well pop a hard one at the sight of Shiro lifting weights isn’t helping.

At that thought, his phone chimes a text alert, and he looks down to see a message from Shiro:

 

**[07:15] Shirogane**

_Hey! Ready to kick some ass at the gym?_

 

Hunk grins and types out a reply.

 

**[07:15] Hunk**

_Hell yeah._

_Never been this pumped to work out._

_On a Saturday, no less._

**[07:19] Shirogane**

_Ha! Would you prefer Sunday?_

_I’m outside btw._

 

Hunk takes a deep breath and stands up to leave. He stashes his phone away, grabs his gym bag, and locks his front door behind him. He bolts down the stairs and comes outside to see Shiro’s car idling at the front of the building. Hunk grins and opens the door, sliding right in with an enthusiastic greeting to Shiro.

The older man matched his enthusiasm. “Good morning, Hunk! I see you had a good night.”

“Surprisingly, yeah. Did you?”

“Ah, somewhat. I don’t sleep very well sometimes.” He bites his lips, pulling out and driving into the street. “PTSD is a bitch to deal with, even after a certain number of years.”

Hunk nods with understanding, shooting Shiro an encouraging smile. “I understand, man. Do you have any tricks or methods of at least helping with some nights?”

 _‘Hearing your voice will certainly help.’_ Shiro holds back a face at the sudden and rather invasive thought.

“I do. Sometimes they work, other times…” Shiro is unwilling to finish that thought.

“Nights can get real rough, I get it.” Hunk says sagely. “So, I remember you mentioned having a roommate a while back.”

“Yeah, Keith, he’s my best friend, we go way back to middle school.” Shiro is grateful for the change in topic, seeing that Hunk quickly senses how uncomfortable he is with that sort of topic. “We met on the playground on the second day of the new school year. He was in sixth grade, I was in the eighth. He was the smallest kid in the entire grade, but somehow managed to defeat and ward off all the playground bullies.”

Hunk laughs at that, listening with rapt attention at the story of how Shiro and his best friend, Keith, first met. By the time they arrived at the parking lot of the fitness center, Shiro learned of the time Hunk and Lance started a large scale  neighborhood snowball fight in their senior year of college. It lasted several hours with, remarkably, minimal casualties.

“It was the most solid war, and the most fun I ever had in such a long time.” Hunk reminisces fondly, while collecting his bag and getting out of the car. “I hated snow so much, but because Lance made it work, I now have an appreciation for how much fun it can actually be.”

“That’s amazing!” Shiro laughs, locking up his car and swings his bag over his shoulder. “You know what? Next major snow fall, you and Lance against me and Keith.”

Hunk barks out a laugh, raising an eyebrow at Shiro’s direct challenge. “Are you sure that you and the hot-head can handle it? We are a well-oiled Hance machine, when it comes down to it _nothing_ can stop us.”

Shiro cannot help but get warm at the cockiness in Hunk’s expression. The smirk spread on his plump lips is doing something to Shiro’s belly that he’s certain will show on another, more obvious area of his body. He takes a deep breath to keep himself from going lightheaded from desire, and smiles despite feeling a weird sense of unease at the mention of Lance.

“You’re on.” He says gruffly, and quickly turns his attention towards the front lobby of the facility, missing the visible gulp Hunk took at his answer. “And welcome to my humble workout spot.”

Hunk glances around, noticing that the place isn’t much different from where he works out. The only difference is the fact that there isn’t a dojo offering martial arts programs adjacent to the main facility. He follows Shiro through to the front desk, getting a Visitor’s Pass and handing it to Hunk. They continue deep in the facility, with Shiro showing Hunk what the various rooms were for, as well as the pool area and finally the locker room. The place seems like a normal, albeit small, gym that seems to seep in the rather pricey side due to the equipment and clientele.

“There seems to be a lot of white people in here.” Hunk comments rather suddenly, and Shiro laughs out in deep surprise. “Oh shit, that was rude, huh?”

“No, actually, believe it or not Keith made the same observation the first time I took him here as well.” Shiro says with a light snort. “But the observation has not fallen away from me either. The area it’s in certainly explains a lot about the people who come here.” Shiro shrugs. “I avoid coming here on Thursday nights because of the wave of rather snotty college kids.”

Hunk huffs a laugh, setting his stuff down and opening a locker. “Yeah, I get you. But it’s affordable, yeah?”

“Yup, and it’s pretty decent for what it offers.” Shiro places his things in his locker and spins the combination lock closed. “So, you ready to lift, bro?”

Hunk nods and puts his things away, straightening himself out with a stretch. “You know I’m ready, Broseph.” He responds with a grin and Shiro laughs. “Do you stretch before or after exercise?” He asks, following the older man out of the room into the weight lifting area.

“I prefer to do it after, when my muscles are still warm and pliant.” Shiro answers, setting his things down near a bench.

Hunk lends Shiro a hand at loading the straight bar with weights, becoming more and more astonished until Shiro has him stop at 200 lbs. Hunk figures that the older man can lift more than his own weight, but still…it was really hot to see Shiro’s muscles ripple underneath the strain of the weight – even though his arms are covered in sleeves. He figures that there was probably scarring on his arms, as Hunk recalls their conversation about Shiro’s time in the military.

“Uh, Hunk?”

Hunk snaps out of his reverie.

“Yeah!” He responds a little loudly, and internally sighs. He sees the light quirk of Shiro’s lips, but decides not to linger on it. “What’s up, man?”

“I need you to spot me.” Shiro says with a little grin. “You think you can do that?”

Hunk makes a _face_ , and Shiro laughs, getting into position. Hunk bites back a gasp at the length of Shiro’s body. It does _not_ do him any good to imagine that same body draped over his, or riding his-

He shakes his head, pushing away the invasive thought. He then nods to the older man to begin his reps - and Hunk can’t stop staring. Shiro’s muscles shift as he pumps the bar high above his chest, and back down. Hunk’s eyes trace over the taunt positioning of Shiro’s hips and his legs. He keeps reminding himself to pay attention, and keep a close eye on the workout - _not_ the body.

After a few more minutes, Shiro rests the bar onto the holder and sits up, catching his breath.

“That was really good, Shiro.” Hunk begins. “I didn’t think you’d lift so much.”

Shiro shoots him a smile, and Hunk does _not_ melt, thank you very much.

“Oh, that’s just the minimum,” Shiro says easily. “I can usually bench 230.”

Hunk’s brain stutters to a stop.

“You’re _joking._ ”

Shiro shakes his head with a laugh. “Believe it or not, I kept up my regimen after my discharge. I actually got better.” Shiro looks oddly pleased with himself, and of course Hunk thinks it’s adorable.

“It’s your turn, my friend.” Shiro gestures to the machine and gets up. Hunk nods, taking a deep breath and wiping down the machine before getting on himself.

It was Shiro’s turn to be impressed, but he wasn’t expecting to be seriously turned on by Hunk lifting 300 pounds like it was nothing. He wills himself to calm down, but he can’t help but think about Hunk lifting him up in a bench press. He immediately curses himself, knowingly setting himself up for a lot of explicit daydreams and cold morning showers.

He internally shakes off the thought and remains focused on spotting Hunk and not allowing anything to hurt him. He’s highly aware of his arousal now, and prays that it isn’t noticeable, but...again, somehow his brain decided to play the scenario of Hunk’s larger frame pinning him down onto a bed and -

 _‘Shiro, get a fucking hold of yourself!’_ The poor man exhaled sharply.

“Shiro, you alright?” Hunk has the nerve to ask him if he was alright, when Hunk was the one lifting the heavy weights.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Shiro shoots Hunk a smile and the younger man nearly drops the bar.

Yeah, this was going to be a long morning.

 

\----

 

“Whew! That was quite the workout, don’t you think?” Hunk says, wiping sweat off his brows.

Shiro nods, while catching his breath. It was solid two hours later and Shiro managed to get in more this time around than he ever did before. He wasn’t sure what the reason was, but he’s having the most fun with Hunk’s commentary and snide comments about the other patrons.

“Yeah, I think I’m done for today.” He gestures towards a semi private spot on the floor. “Lets gets some stretching in before we both die of soreness later.”

Hunk agrees, and they both settle on the ground for some post workout stretching.

Hunk’s eyes trail over Shiro’s relaxed form as he performs some basic stretches. He was impressed at the other man’s flexibility, although not too surprised. Shiro wasn’t incredibly bulky, he’s seen those body types before. Hunk is aware that Shiro could stretch in positions that most other bodybuilders wouldn’t even dream of being in. He pushes any further intrusive thoughts away and focuses on loosening his muscles.

Shiro...is at a loss.

Hunk’s flexibility is throwing him for a loop, and he isn’t sure how to go about processing that information.

“Hey, uh, Hunk?”

“Yeah, buddy?” 

“How are you doing that?”

“Doing what…? Oh!” Hunk says, going down from his... _interesting_ pose. “I take yoga with Lance on Sunday mornings. Have been doing it for about three years now.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool...” Shiro says rather weakly, but couldn’t allow his body to show his excitement at the information. Rather quickly, he stands up and gathers his things.

“Um, you know what? I think I’m done. I’ll be in the showers.” He turns abruptly and leaves a bewildered Hunk behind.

The drive back home is a little awkward and Shiro drops him home rather awkwardly and seemingly coldly.

“So...see you Monday, then?” Hunk asks, somehow needing to make this okay.

Shiro bites back a sigh. “Yeah, I’ll see you then.” Without another word, Shiro drives off.

Well, that wasn’t encouraging at all. Hunk sighs and enters his apartment building.

 

\----

 

That Monday was a relatively slow day.

Not much had transpired between Shiro and Hunk since Saturday, except Hunk sending Shiro a thank you text. Shiro responded back with an apology, explaining that he didn’t mean for things to get so awkward between them. He hoped that it was enough to get Hunk to think nothing was wrong.

During a quiet reading period in AP Literature, Shiro raises an eyebrow at a small group of his students whispering amongst themselves in the back. He exhales and walks towards them to dismantle the quiet disruption.

“Guys,” he begins, and the children startle enough to stop and look up at him. “While I do encourage discussions in my class, there are appropriate times for them. I’d prefer it if they were  on topic.” The students have enough sense to at least _look_ guilty, apart from one.

“Technically, Mr. Shirogane, it is on topic.” The boy, Jonathan says, and Shiro raises his eyebrows again.

“Oh? What about?”

“The Strongman mentioned in the story. You know, the one from the circus act?” He  continues.

Shiro nods, encouraging Jonathan to continue.

“Well, some of us were debating about how much he could actually lift in real life.”

“Point of reference?” Shiro asks.

“Mr. Garrett.”

At this, Shiro blinks in surprise. “What makes you say that?”

“He moved a huge mechanical machine across the back of the room earlier today.” Jonathan sits up, getting excited. “That thing had to be at _minimum_ 180 pounds.”

“No way,” one of his classmates joins in. “210 is, for sure, the minimum.”

“You really think it’s that much?” Johnathan inquires, not quite believing it.

“Well,” Shiro begins, grabbing his students’ attention. “Mr. Garrett _is_ a big guy. He’s capable of lifting 300 pounds, if I’m not mistaken. Maybe more if I were to test him.”

He says all of this  with confidence and without a second guess. He thinks back to witnessing Hunk lifting the weights and how he practically drooled over the taut  muscles of his arms and flexing of his back. It is, however, at this precise moment that he realizes that there is a silence amongst his students and he snaps out of his haze in a panic. He glances around, absorbing the mixture of shock and excitement on their faces.

A timid voice rises from the depths of the silence: “Wait…how do you know this, Mr. Shirogane?”

Dammit, not again.

Shiro waits a beat too long, barely stammering a reply as his class just _erupts_ into chaotic questioning.

 

\----

 

“I am _so_ glad that today is a Flex Day.” One of Hunk’s students say, after the bell rang.

“Ugh, you guys are lucky,” Hunk begins, leaning back into his chair. “the whole reason behind a day like this is for teachers to have a big meeting, or whatever.”

“And _we_ get to go home early!” Another student chimes in.

“Boooo!” Hunk calls after the backs of his departing students. “See you guys next week!”

“Bye Mr. Garrett!”

He only has  a moment before he hears a knock at the door, and he looks up to see Matt standing in the doorway.

“Hey Matt!” He greets. “I’m really glad you don’t make the same entrances as  Allura. I swear it’s her life’s mission to give me a heart attack.”

“Hey, Hunk.” The older man steps in with a laugh. “No, Allura is the unique one at  this school. I’m pretty much used to her at this point in my teaching career. And yes, it’s what she does to newer faculty.” He stops in front of Hunk’s desk. “Is everything alright?”

Hunk nods with a small smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Those kids take a lot out of me, ya’know? But I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.”

“I understand perfectly.” Matt stops at one of the tables. “But otherwise, you’re doing okay? Nothing’s bothering you?”

Hunk raises an eyebrow, appreciating Matt’s concern, but he feels like there is something behind it. He nods his head again.

“Dude, I’m fine. I just want to get this meeting over and done with.” He gets up and stretches. He gathers his bag and coat, and follows Matt out the door. They join the rest of the faculty saying goodbye to their students and head towards one of the large conference classrooms at the other end of the school. As Matt catches up with one of the French instructors, Hunk takes in the chatter of his colleagues mixed in with the chatter of the mass exodus of students. Some of the chatter focused on  excitement and plans of further activity for the rest of the day, and others were  groans and slight complaints at  having to stay inside the school building for the rest of the day.

Hunk feels empathy for their complaints, but he couldn’t relate. He was looking forward to the meeting for one simple reason: Shiro.

Now, more than ever, he’s been thinking about the other man. Thinking about his voice, gentle, but firm, in cadence. His eyes with their never-ending shine, brilliant within deep gray, and his _smile._ Hunk blushes at the mere thought of Shiro’s smile – kind of crooked and completely cute, though  at times unsure. Hunk can only imagine what Shiro would look like with confidence on those lips…Judging by his body warming up at the thought, he is certain that the effect would be _immediate_.

He finds a spot near the wall right next to the door with Matt grabbing a seat behind him. They continue their conversation, chatting about a gathering that Lance was planning when Allura walks in with Shiro in tow.

Matt calls out to them, gesturing for them to join him and Hunk, and to Hunk’s simultaneous relief and disappointment –

“There aren’t enough seats on this side. Understandable, no one wants to stay here longer than needed.” She muses, and the guys laugh. “I see some seats over there, we’ll see you guys later?”

Hunk and Matt echo their agreement and Allura heads to the area she pointed out . Shiro follows, but not without shooting Hunk a small wave and shy smile, to which Hunk responds in kind with a light blush.

Kolivan finally appears after several minutes and commences the meeting, saving Hunk from any of Matt’s teasing.

 

\----

 

Allura sighs with relief at the adjourning of the faculty meeting. She leans back to stretch properly and her eyes glance over one final time at Matt, who was gathering his belongings and standing up with Hunk. He makes brief eye contact with Allura, and they nod at each other once more and he leaves with the taller man in tow, chatting a mile a minute about what Allura was hoping to be a very important topic.

Allura and Matt have been sending each other silent glances throughout the entire meeting, because it was hard to miss Hunk and Shiro glancing at each other in glaringly obvious ways. Matt and Allura had previously discussed their methods of talking to Hunk and Shiro separately, and now their plan was going into effect. Allura just hoped that it works this time.

She glances over to Shiro, who is speaking to one of the engineering teachers, Ryner, about a robotics convention coming up.

“Hey Shiro, you ready to go?” Allura calls, and Shiro nods at  her. The pair  of them bid Ryner farewell and walk out, following Matt and Hunk at some distance.

Once they’re out of earshot from most of their co-workers, Allura goes straight to the point:

“You got it _bad_ for that Hunka-Hunka burnin’ love, don’t you?” Because she is incredibly mature.

Shiro, whose face is burning brighter than a ripe tomato, answers her question.

“I can’t help it, ‘Lura, he’s just – I can’t _not_ look at him!” He runs his hands down his face, and Allura laughs. “I’m a mess, aren’t I?” Shiro sounds defeated.

“I wouldn’t say _mess._ Just a little disorganized.” She smirks at him. “I can’t say I blame you though. He’s really wonderful.”

“And really, really, sweet. Allura, I don’t know what to do.”

“Have you considered talking to him?” She suggests. “Because I’ve found that to be extremely helpful.”

At this, Shiro rolls his eyes, but shakes his head and fidgets with his hands. “I mean, I _have_ , but I just don’t know what to say.”

Allura sniffs. “It’s not hard to ask someone out.”

“It is when you’re in–” He stops himself in time with a heavy blush and an almost sad look on his face.

At this, Allura stops dead in her tracks and Shiro slows down and looks over at her to see what’s going on.

“Lura? Is everything – ?”

“Shiro, I need you to come closer to me for a second.” Curious, Shiro complies, stopping a few inches away from her. She lifts her hands and places them onto his cheeks, cradling his face to take a closer look at him.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Oh...oh wow.” She says reverently, releasing him. “You really are in love with him, aren’t you?” She asks  quietly, and Shiro nods with a pained expression. “Well, then you have to do something! Just ask him out for a few drinks and talk to him. I’m sure that it’ll be fine, whether he feels the same or not.”

Shiro sighs and looks over to Hunk’s back, heading towards one of the doors that led to the parking lot. “You’re right.” He gathers his nerves and sets his jaw. “I’ll – I’ll talk to him now.” He beams at her. “Thanks Allura.” He gives her a hug and she hugs him back.

“Go get ‘em, Tiger!” She says and Shiro laughs. “Oh, you’re still up for mini doughnuts later, yeah?”

Shiro waves an affirmative as he jogs to catch up to Hunk outside.

Pushing the door open, he sees Hunk moving away from the building towards the curb of the parking lot. He braces himself against the chilly air and steps out.

“Hunk!”

The younger man turns around and smiles at Shiro’s appearance.

“Hey, man!” He says joyously, and Shiro’s heart melts. “I’m _so_ glad that meeting is done and over with.”

Shiro chuckles. “I’m not a big fan of them either,” he shrugs, “but they are mandatory. It _does_ give us the rest of the day off though.” He inhales, keeping himself focused on what he’s about to talk to Hunk about.

“So, Hunk,” He bites his lip and can’t help the flush at Hunk’s undivided attention. “Do you have any plans this weekend?”

“Uhhh, nothing yet.” Hunk answers thoughtfully, then shoots Shiro a sly look. “Why, you wanna lift again, bro?”

At this Shiro laughs. “Maybe.” _‘Or maybe I just want to tell you how much I want–’_

Their conversation was cut short at the sound of a loud honk from what looks like a Honda pulling up to the curb and slowing to a stop before them. Hunk just _beams_ with a bit of an excited gasp, and Shiro catches this with curiosity. The driver’s door opens and a handsome, tall, brown-skinned, and lithe young man steps out and throws his arms up.

 _‘Oh wow, he’s really beautiful…’_ Shiro thinks in a bit of a daze.

“Hunk!”

“Lance!” Hunk mirrors his pose and they scream at each other in greeting. “Dude! I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Of course! I wanted to surprise you by taking you out after your _hard day at work._ ” Lance grins, and turns his attention to Shiro, as a flirtatious smirk appears. “And who. Is. _This_ tall glass of water?”

Hunk startles, and turns to Shiro (who is blushing lightly at the attention), nearly forgetting that he is there. “Oh! This is Shiro!” He gestures back to Lance. “Shiro, I want you to meet Lance, my other half.”

 _‘His other half?’_ Shiro’s heart sinks, but he keeps himself composed.

“Your other half, huh? You two must be real close.” He says with an easy smile, while internally scolding himself for jumping to conclusions, knowing that they could just be best friends as Hunk had said before.

“Oh totally, we’ve known each other since college.” Hunk nods with a fond smile. “Roommates, actually.”

“So _you’re_ Takashi Shirogane, huh?” Lance says, with the beginnings of a sly smirk on his face. He leaned against the car. “Hunk has spoken about you–”

“ _Once._ I only mentioned you once. In passing. When I was telling Lance about our co-workers and that’s it. Because why would I talk about my co-workers in depth? It’s not a thing that people do, I mean it is, but not like this, and I’m totally rambling because I’m starving and _Lance let’s go before I eat this car._ ” Hunk slaps the hood of the car, and opens the door. “Bye Shiro, we’ll talk on Monday.” And he slips into the passenger seat. Lance laughs and bids Shiro a farewell, and gets back in himself.

Shiro stares after the car and is left with more questions about Hunk than he had previously.

 

\----

 

“Oh my god, Lance you are the _worst_.” Hunk says as soon as the car pulls out of the parking lot. His best friend raised an eyebrow and huffs.

“What do you mean by that? I was just trying to confirm something,” Lance lightly drums his fingers on the steering wheel. “and judging by your reaction _you_ haven’t asked him out yet, have you?”

Hunk doesn’t answer, but instead stubbornly looks out the window with a heavy blush on his cheeks.

“Hunk.”

No answer.

“Hunk. Buddy. Tell me you did.”

Hunk sighs. “No,” it comes out as a whine. “I didn’t.”

Once more, Lance huffs. “Why haven’t you? The man is an Adonis! And it’s obvious he likes you back.”

Hunk rolls his eyes. “No he doesn’t, Lance.”

“How would you know?”

“How would _you_ know?” Hunk counters, crossing his arms. Lance cocks an eyebrow, glancing over at him with an _are-you-serious_ expression. Hunk’s blush intensifies.

“Look, I just do, alright? He’s just really, really, nice and sweet to _everyone_ and that’s it. Besides, he wouldn’t be into me like that anyway.” The second sentence comes out rather quietly.

Lance knows that self-deprecating tone anywhere. “Dude, you need to stop. You’re an amazing guy with the cutest, most squishable and kissable face.”

“Oh my god, stop _saying_ that!” Hunk is biting back a smile.

“I won’t because it’s _true_ , Hunk! You’re a total babe!”

“Aw, jeez,” Hunk flushes. “okay, but, I highly doubt he’s into big guys.”

Lance makes a face. “How would you know? Did you ask?”

“I went to the gym with him, Lance. He’s stupid buff and I’m pretty sure he’s into anyone who can keep up.”

“Hunk, babe, light of my life, you can bench press me _and_ Pidge, simultaneously, without breaking a sweat.” Lance makes a face at the driver in front of him and swears viciously in Spanish. “You know she has the video evidence.”

“I said keep up. Not out-lift him.” Hunk sighs, nonplussed at Lance’s road rage. “I don’t need to ask.”

“Whatever! Then you can’t possibly know that way. Besides, _everyone_ is into big guys.”

Hunk squints at him. “ _You’re_ into big guys.”

“Yup!”

At this, Hunk stares at Lance, who flashes him a suggestive look, and Hunk practically screams.

“ _Oh my god, still?_ ”

“Always, Hunk.” Lance says softly, almost sadly even, if Hunk pays close enough attention. “I’m telling you, you’re an amazing and gorgeous man. Stop selling yourself short and just believe that it’s possible that a man like Shiro likes you back, alright?”

Hunk nods with a shy smile. “Alright.” He agrees gently, and Lance sighs with relief.

“Good. Now get your head out of your ass and ask  him already. If he doesn’t feel the same, fuck him, it’s his loss.”

“Alright, alright,” Hunk laughs, feeling resolute. “I’ll do it.”

“Smart choice. Because if not, I’d do it for you.”

“Oh no, no, no, noooooooooooo…”

Lance just _laughs._

 

\----

 

The doughnut shop is filled with music drifting from the speakers mounted in each corner of the room, the chatter of young adults about various subjects of the day, and the argument Allura and Coran are having, poking and bickering at each other, over who should get the last piece of a mini strawberry doughnut sitting right between them.

Shiro is eating, somewhat dejectedly, his snack, while Allura and Coran tries to figure out what the matter was.

“Shiro, hun,” Allura begins, still not turning away from the doughnut.“You’ve been playing with your doughnuts for the past five minutes.” She pauses. “You usually finish three in two minutes or less.” She squints. “Did something happen between you and Hunk?” At this, Coran raises his eyebrows and Shiro looks up.

“Well…” He wasn’t sure how to begin. “Not really…”

“Allura told me that you went to speak to him earlier.” Coran begins, slapping Allura hand away when she tried to grab the doughnut while he was distracted.  “Did he say something to you in particular?”

Shiro fidgets. “I…didn’t get the chance to really talk to him about anything.”

“Oh, so what happened?”

“Well, we started to talk but his ride pulled up and Hunk basically introduced him as his Other Half.”

Coran and Allura stared at him with mixed expressions, mini doughnut forgotten.

“Other half…” Coran begins.

“…As in friend? Or…?” Allura continues.

“I don’t know, that’s the problem.” Shiro says, giving a sigh.

Allura narrowed her eyes, as Coran strokes his mustache, weighing up the situation.

“What was the time frame, exactly?” Allura asks.

“Time frame?” Shiro asks bemused. “What do you mean by that?”

“She means, how long was this entire exchange between you, Hunk, and his supposed significant other?” Coran supplies, and Shiro nods in understanding.

“Barely five minutes, I suppose.”

“Well then!” Coran nearly shouts, startling the patrons at the surrounding tables. “That isn’t nearly enough time for you to make assumptions about anything with Hunk and his friend.”

“He’s absolutely right –” Allura begins.

“Of course, I am!”

“Coran.”

“Apologies.”

“As I was saying, Coran has a solid point.” Allura continues. “There is no way for you to tell just from the five minutes you meet this other person. Besides, did they embrace or kiss each other as a form of greeting?”

Shiro shakes his head.

“Well there’s your answer.”

“You do have a point –” Shiro begins to state.

“As per usual.” Allura interrupts, and fist bumps with Coran. Doughnuts may tear them apart but meddling with other people’s love lives brought them together again.  Shiro smiles and continues.

“It wasn’t long enough to really assume much, but I just can’t help but feel that I need to approach this differently now.”

“Different, how?” Coran inquires, and Allura’s expression suddenly brightens with an idea.

“I know what you can do!” She wiggles in her seat in excitement. “Invite him for a night out!”

“Oh, like to a bar or something?”

“Yes!”

“But you know I don’t like that.”

“But he doesn’t. And from what I have gathered, he’s not one to turn down an invitation to the bar.” Allura states. “He can probably drink you under the table, so there’s some challenge material right there.”

Shiro laughs.

“Drag Keith with you! I haven’t seen his cute behind in _months_.”

“And besides, Number One, there is nothing more relaxing than a night out with your pals! It provides a comfortable environment to speak to your heart’s content. You have nothing to worry about.”

Allura nods her head in agreement, and both her and Coran look over to Shiro, leaning over in anticipation of his answer.

“Alright, alright, I’ll invite him out.”

Allura’s loud, victorious cheering earns them a warning from the staff.

 

\----

 

“C’mon, Hunky Hunk!” Lance bemoans from his place on the couch. Saturday night, and Lance was ready to _go_. “There is such thing as fashionably late, and being so late that no one cares anymore. Which one is it gonna be, my large, gassy friend?”

Hunk huffs as he emerged from his bedroom in a pair of dark jeans and a yellow V-Neck. He placed his hands onto his hips, and blushes furiously as Lance wolf-whistles.

“Whew! Is it hot in here, or is it just you?” He wriggles his eyebrows and Hunk laughs still red, as tension leaves his shoulders.

“Oh my god, shut up man.” He says, making a beeline towards the front door where his boots are. “You know I don’t make that much of an effort like you do.”

“If you did, you’d be as flawless as me, but you can make naked work, so you’re fine.” Lance says flippantly as Hunk stutters.

“Stop that! You know I’m already nervous enough about seeing Shiro outside of work again.”

“Noooope.” Lance slides off the couch and heads over to the front door, leaning against the wall. “And everything will turn out great! I promise.”

“You sure about that?” Hunk makes sure that he has his essential  items – wallet, phone, and keys – grabs his coat and opens the front door.

“Hell yes! I mean, if it doesn’t work out, we can just be each other’s wingman and go all out anyway.” Lance grins. “Work our incredible, sexy magic.” He wriggles his fingers and Hunk gives him a light flick between his eyebrows.

“Well, there is that.” Hunk says with a little snort and opens the door. Lance steps out first, chattering away about what he expects for the night, as Hunk takes a deep breath and follows his best friend out, closing the door behind him.

 

\----

 

Keith Kogane is dressed and ready to go in his red tee and black jeans ensemble. It’s essentially the same type of outfit he wears daily, but somehow, he makes it look as if he was going out on a Saturday night.

Which they are, and Shiro is jealous.

“Shiro, this isn’t a date.” Keith sighs, leaning against his best friend’s doorway. He sweeps his arm over to the mess Shiro made in the past half hour, trying to decide on the best outfit to pair with his jeans. “You know you look good in anything.”

Shiro sighs, looking dejectedly down at the two shirts in his hands.

“Yes, I know that, but you know I don’t go out. Specially to meet up with a potential –” he cut himself off.

“Boyfriend?” Keith supplies helpfully, and Shiro presses his lips.

“Keith.”

“That’s what it is though.”

“You said this isn’t a date.”

“Not yet.”

“Keith, please help me pick one. I’m dying.”

The younger makes a face. “I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone more dramatic than you or Allura.” He mutters, stepping further into the room and grabbing one of the shirts. He lifts it up for a closer look, then gestures for the other one Shiro is holding. He quickly nods at the second one.

“That one shows off your pecs better.” Keith throws the first shirt back on the bed and Shiro thanks him with a light blush on the bridge of his nose.

“Thanks a lot –” There was a knock at the front door. “Hey, can you –”

“On it!”

There is shuffling to the front room, and Shiro angles his head to hear better as his roommate opens the door.

“Oh, hey Alluromph–!”

Shiro pauses in his ministrations to make a move to see what was going on, until he hears:

“Keith! I missed your face!”

Allura has arrived.

He huffs a laugh as he slips his gray shirt on and steps out to greet Allura in the front room.

“Are you ready to get fucked up?” Allura exclaims throwing her hands up.

“I’m firmly convinced that you were a Frat Boy in your past life.” Keith says with a sneer, and Allura just gives him an ugly grin.

“Who says I wasn’t a hardcore Sorority Girl in _this_ life?”

Shiro swears he saw Keith take an involuntary step away from her and he laughs.

“Hey Allura.” He pulls her into hug. “I’m pretty much ready to go,” Shiro pauses. “Keith suspects that you’re just doing this just so you can have the opportunity to get fucked up.”

“Absolutely!” She grabs both Shiro and Keith towing them towards the door. “ _With_ the bonus of getting you and Hunk _laid_ , now let’s go!”

Keith sniggers as Shiro sighs in exasperation, all the while turning a brilliant shade of pink.

 

\----

 

The jump from Allura threatening to shove a broken beer bottle up Lance’s ass to helping him score with a few of the hot patrons of the bar gave Hunk a serious case of whiplash. He’s not entirely sure if he’s happy or worried about introducing his best friend to his eccentric co-worker.But,they’ve yet to set fire to the building, so he counts that as a win. For now.

Presently, they are double-teaming Shiro’s roommate Keith, who is currently struggling not to respond in kind, but failing miserably through his furious blushing. Hunk isn’t sure if Allura’s helping Lance, or if it’s the other way around (knowing Lance, it could be both. He’s starting to suspect that Allura may be the same way).

“Never thought I’d see the day that Keith would be double teamed and _respond_ to it.” Shiro’s amusement drifts above the din of the bar from Hunk’s left, and the younger man glances over to Shiro with a laugh.

“I’m just a little more concerned with how well Allura and Lance are getting on.” Hunk starts, after taking a sip of his ale. “I mean, Lance is an obnoxious little shit, but knows when to reel it in when he needs to. He’s smart enough not to keep hitting on her.”

Shiro laughs. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Hunk just stares at him head on with an incredulous expression on his face.

“What?”

“Dude! Do you _not_ see what’s happening? Lance is killer when he puts his heart into it, and Allura is a babe magnet just with her looks alone. Keith is gonna _get it_ tonight. Watch.”

Shiro snorts and glances over anyway. Sure enough, Keith has his lips pressed against Lance in a heavy kiss, while Allura sits back with a mixture of a smug and predatory grin, nursing her drink.

“Well I’ll be damned.”

“See? Told ya.” Hunk states in a matter-of-fact tone.

“And you’re okay with this?” Shiro asks, not sure if he’s crossing boundaries with how his question is being posed.

“With what? Lance?” Hunk raises an eyebrow. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be? He means the world to me and I have no right to get in the way of who he is.”

Shiro nods silently, directing his attention back to his drink.

“Why do you ask?”

“Ah, no reason.”

They fall into an awkward silence, and Hunk takes the opportunity to breathe and observe Shiro. His breath had caught in his throat when the older man made his entrance into the bar an hour earlier, looking like a model fresh from a high fashion magazine shoot. Lance certainly didn’t help with his rather explicit commentary as Shiro spotted them and headed towards them with his equally attractive crew of friends.

Now that Hunk is sitting beside Shiro, he takes the opportunity to run his eyes over the smooth hills of Shiro’s arms. His shirt clings to him like wet fabric, accentuating every curve of the drool worthy muscles across his torso. Hunk notes that Shiro’s shirt is long sleeved, concluding that his coworker wasn’t very comfortable with showing his prosthetic off in a social place. The gym was entirely different, and Hunk felt rather privileged to be around Shiro in an area that showed Shiro’s vulnerabilities.

Hunk understands why Shiro is uncomfortable, but to him, it only added to how cool Shiro is – and it didn’t help that this human Adonis has dark blue jeans that clings to him like a second skin. Particularly built to show off Hunk’s favorite part of Shiro’s body.

At this thought, his cheeks turn red and – he quickly looks away as Shiro looks over to him.

Shiro raises an eyebrow, catching Hunk appraising him from the corner of his eye before turning. Biting a smile, he eyes the blushing man and appraises the bulkier man’s appearance.

Hunk wasn’t wearing anything fancy, but it seems like he’s capable of making any article of clothing look amazing on him. A simple yellow V-Neck and jeans looks nice on anyone, but there is something about Hunk wearing this combination confidently that makes Shiro appreciate Hunk’s physique more.

It isn’t the first time he was seeing Hunk’s form in an entirely different attire - their time at the gym has certainly been fueling his imagination.

He snaps his attention back towards his drink and finishes it in one swig. He makes up his mind to do _something_ tonight, and steels himself as he prepares the next move.

“Hey Hunk,” he has the other’s attention. “do you want to play some darts?”

“Sure thing, man.” Hunk says with an easy smile – Shiro’s heart does _not_ beat faster – finishes his drink and sets down his glass onto the table. “Lead the way.”

Shiro nods jerkily, and bites his lip as he leads Hunk to the Darts Corner.

Hunk follows Shiro, struggling to keep his eyes straight ahead, but…

 _‘This man’s ass is going to be the absolute death of me.’_ Hunk thinks miserably as they reach the area.

They spent the next fifteen minutes flirting and playing the game – more time was spent talking shit and making the other blush than actual gameplay, but neither of them were complaining.

“Hey guys!”

Both Shiro and Hunk turn their heads towards Allura, standing to the side with a light smile on her face.

“Just to let you guys know, Lance, Keith and I are going to head back to my place.” She gestures towards the door, where Lance and Keith stumble out.

“You guys had enough already, or…?” Shiro starts to ask.

“Are you finishing the night with a little bit of a night cap?” Hunk finishes with a sly grin. Allura just shrugs, a light pink dusting her cheeks.

“At my place, yes.” She sniffs and adds: “At least three out of five of us are.” She turns with a wave of her hand, leaving behind two highly embarrassed friends.

“Don’t tell me.” Shiro says in disbelief.

“Yup. If we made a bet, you’d have owed me at least twenty bucks.” Hunk says with a laugh.

“Wow, she is right though.” Shiro continues, turning back towards the game at hand. “Out of all of us, three are at least going to get somewhere tonight.”

“Who says it’s only gotta be them?” Hunk internally panics. He wants to keep those words to himself, but he didn’t anticipate his mouth refusing to cooperate. However, Shiro gives him a rather mixed expression, and Hunk is not entirely sure if he should proceed.

“What are you implying, Hunk?” Shiro’s voice doesn’t seem to have an ounce of confusion.

Hunk takes that as a sign to push forward. _‘Might as well,’_ He thinks, gathering his wits. _‘if I can’t get it out now, I don’t think I ever can.’_

“I’m _implying_ that, maybe you and I don’t have to go home empty handed.”

Hunk’s words settled like a heavy weight in Shiro’s belly, warming up at the clear opportunity presented right before him. Shiro bites his bottom lip, looking away trying to weigh his options…

But something was holding him back.

“I think I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t…you may have missed the mark on that.” Shiro responds almost quietly, feeling like the entire world looking down on him in deep disappointment.

Oh.

Okay, that’s fine.

Hunk was _not_ embarrassed and certainly _not_ feeling rejected. Not at all. Maybe Shiro wasn’t ready for that sort of thing, or something else was on his mind. Hunk had no clue, but he wasn’t about to push Shiro into something he clearly isn’t comfortable with.

“Hunk, I’m–”

“Shiro, please don’t apologize.” Hunk’s voice is strained. “I was merely suggesting that maybe we’d be each other’s wingman or something.” He hopes that it was a good cover up for what his true intentions are. “But, if you’re not up for it, then we can just still hang for a bit…”

Shiro blinks up at him, analyzing Hunk and his fidgeting. Something feels off about his explanation, but Shiro suddenly feels tired. He wants nothing more than to go home, bury himself underneath his sheets and lament at his cowardice.

He sighs. “Thanks Hunk, but I think I’m going to turn in early.”

Hunk nods. “Oh yeah, sure that’s perfectly fine!”

“I hope I didn’t put a damper on the rest of the night.”

“Not at all, Shiro. I’m actually feeling a bit tired myself, so let’s just get out of here, yeah?” Hunk answers lightly, gesturing towards the door, and gives Shiro an easy smile when the older man agrees.

 

\----

 

“Saturday was a complete bust and it’s all my fault.” Shiro whines from his desk after school, when he’s supposed to be grading papers.

Allura, who’s sitting beside his desk in a rather odd position in her chair, shifts slightly with a sigh.

“Is that why I didn’t hear from you since I left?”

Shiro shrugs. “I figured that you were having a great time with Lance and Keith over the weekend, I didn’t want to disturb you guys.” He smiles gently at the faint blush on her cheeks, and he looks away as she clears her throat.

“As much as I appreciate that, it’s still not an excuse to not call me.” She admonishes. “Why did you turn him down like that?”

“I guess I was scared.”

“Scared of what, Shiro? Hunk sounded to me like he was ready to take you to bed with him.”

“Yeah, well, it could be that he deserves better, and Lance seems like the person to give him that.”

Allura stares at him in silence, and he pointedly ignores her as he goes back to his work.

“You don’t seriously believe that.”

Shiro refuses to answer, and Allura makes a _noise._ “Shiro, we talked about this.”

“I know Allura –”

“And I know that this is something you’re still working on –”

“Allura –”

“ – but give yourself _some_ credit! You’re a total catch!”

“I –” he huffs out a faint laugh. “ – thanks Allura –”

“You’re welcome.” Smugness suits this woman.

Shiro laughs a little more. “No really, thanks…but I just don’t know.”

They fall into another silence.

“Have you ever considered being in a polyamorous relationship?”

Shiro blinks at the question.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” She shifts into a more comfortable position. “do you consider the possibility of being with someone who is already with another person or persons?”

Shiro is silent for a moment, then, “I…have, a long time ago. It was with Sendak though and it didn’t work out because –”

“He was a selfish and abusive sack of pig shit, I know.” Allura concludes. The corner of Shiro’s mouth quirks upwards at that.

“Yeah.” He considers this, then puts down his pen and shifts in his own chair to face her fully. “Why do you ask?”

At this, Allura shifts slightly away from him and struggles to maintain eye contact with him. Something was up.

“Does…this have something to do with your night with Keith and Lance?”

She shakes her head no, but her blush tells him something completely different.

“Allura…” He didn’t know what to say. “I thought we agreed to be friends. And I don’t feel the same –”

“Wait, wait, wait, stop right there.” Allura interrupts, and Shiro stops, bemused. “This is in no way an attempt, on my part, to pull you in with what I am doing.”

“Oh.” Shiro responds with an exhale. “Are you talking about Hunk?”

Allura nods eagerly, and Shiro fidgets.

“I don’t know about that Allura…”

“What do you mean?” She interjects. “You’re obviously over the moon for this man, and he seems pretty open to a lot of shit.”

“I don’t know if I’d be good with sharing.” Shiro places his pen down and sat back with a defeated expression. “It sounds selfish of me to say this, but I want him to myself.” He looks down at his hands, playing with his fingers. “I want to be the only one he thinks about all day, and the first thing he sees in the morning. I want to be the one there for him as much as humanly possible, and to be the one to comfort him whenever he needs it.” He looks up, his eyes looking distant. “Allura…I want… 

“Shiro.”

He blinks over to his friend, and goes silent at the fond expression his younger friend is giving him.

“Mr. Shirogane,” she begins gently. “you clearly know deep in your heart that Hunk is the man for you. You gotta get your courage together and talk to him. If you do nothing, you know nothing will happen.” She leans forward and grabs his bionic hand. “He’s a sweet man, and I can _feel_ the kindness and love from him. He opened up to you, now you talk to him, and you’ll be surprised about who he thinks can give him the best.” She winks at him. “Oh, and I will kick your sorry ass if you don’t do shit by March.”

At this, Shiro laughs and runs his fingers through his locks. “You’re absolutely right, ‘Lura.”

“Of course I am.” She shoots him a Cheshire Grin, and he rolls his eyes with a huff.

“I’ll come up with a way to approach him.”

“When?”

“Soon!”

“Like next week soon, or…?”

“Oh my god.”

“Alright, alright,” Allura relents. “You have until March, then I’ll do something about it. Remember that.”

“I will, I will.” They fall into a comfortable silence.

“Thanks, Allura.”

“Anytime, Takashi.”

\----

 

“Betting pool?” Shiro inquires, “You guys have a betting pool?”

At this question, Matt quickly shoves food in his mouth and Allura just looks at him innocently.

“Huh?”

Shiro narrows his eyes. “You guys have a betting pool, don’t you?”

“Nooo.” Allura forces out with a suspiciously blank expression.

Shiro glances over to Matt, who was busy shoving food into his mouth, and sighed.

“Allura, don’t lie to me.” He says, then pauses. “I want in.”

Matt nearly chokes on his food and Allura barks out a laugh before schooling her features back into a neutral one.

“There is nothing to be in on, Shiro.”

“Hey-”

She stands up abruptly pointing at him, “Nothing.” and without another word, leaves.

Shiro glances over to Matt, who was staring right back at him.

“Matthew.”

The man proceeded to shove more food into his mouth, effectively resembling the chipmunk impersonations his younger sister mastered during their family dinners.

Shiro stops trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have risen from the grave to bring you this shit bag of a chapter (8k+ wth). I literally have chapter 3 ready to go way before this one so, ughghgh. I can't say I'm still happy with it, but I've had a lot of help with it from multiple people, mainly my Magical Anime Betas: [RedBowBuddha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBowBuddha) and [nawsies](http://archiveofourown.org/users/nawsies)
> 
> And thank you guys for being patient and at least keeping up with my lack of updates. I'm trying to be more active at least keep up.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. It's About Damn Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Shiro finally get their shit together.
> 
> With some extra help.

The following week, Shiro forgets his papers and asks Keith to bring them for him.

“Are you going to talk to him today, like you planned?” His roommate says, after handing over the bag of graded works.

Shiro bites his lower lip, staying quiet.

“Shiro.”

No answer.

“Takashi.”

Shiro makes a vague noise in the back of his throat, and Keith just _glares._

“Don’t you have work to do, or something?” Shiro tries.

“It’s my day off, asshole.”

“Just…I’ll do what I can, Keith.”

“Ugh, _fine_ , whatever.” He presses his lips together and says nothing more, shooting Shiro a knowing look. He knows very well where this hesitance is coming from, but it was honestly long overdue for Shiro to find some happiness. “I’m out.”

“Thanks again, Keith.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keith mutters. “Oh, and one more thing,” Keith punches Shiro on his shoulder. Hard.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Shiro snarls, glaring at his shorter roommate.

“Stop being a prick and go after your happiness. You deserve it, dumbass.” Without another word, Keith leaves.

 

\----

 

Valentine’s Day isn’t Hunk’s favorite holiday, but he appreciates the sentiment behind the gift giving and spending time with one’s significant other despite the consumerism.

This year, Hunk is hoping to make some improvements in the Significant Other Department by earning a significant other.

He’s dressed and ready to celebrate to the best of his ability – a Valentine’s Day novelty shirt, a pair of his own worn jeans, and a red headband. The effort isn’t much, but it’s clear that he’s at least in some sort of support of the activities that will occur throughout the day.

He arrives at the school a lot earlier than his usual time – well before most teachers actually – and manages to find a way in, thanks to Sylvia who arrives on campus not five minutes after he does.

“Happy Valentine’s Day! You’re a lot earlier than usual, Mr. Garrett.” She says, and Hunk nods, fighting down a blush.

“Yeah, I needed to come in to do some setting up. I promised my students that I’ll decorate the room a bit.” He lifts the extra bags in his hands to emphasize his point. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the only reason why he came to school so early.

“Ah, I see,” She nods, and Hunk swears he sees a knowing glint in her eyes. “Well, I’ll let you in so you can get right to work.” She unlocks the door and Hunk enters after her with a _‘thank you’_ and hurries to his classroom to set his things down in the back room.

He steps back out with only one bag that contained a box and he swiftly makes his way up the staircase to the second floor. He stops at Shiro’s classroom door and bites his lip, remembering something. He glances down the hallway, and luckily for him, one of the custodians is currently mopping their way towards the general direction of Allura’s classroom. He waves down the other person and they look up, immediately smiling at Hunk’s presence.

“Hunk!” They exclaim.

“Hey, Barney!” Hunk calls back in happiness. “How are you this morning?”

“Not too bad! Grateful to be alive, as I am every day.”

“That’s wonderful! Hey, I got a favor to ask.”

“Sure thing! Just give me a sec –” The other man places his mop and bucket to the side and approaches Hunk, so that shouting wouldn’t be an option. “what do you need, big guy?”

“Can you open the door for me? I know it’s unusual, but I have a gift I wanna surprise Shiro with.” Sylvia is _not_ the only person he saw that knowing gleam from for the second time that day. Hunk is starting to believe that something is up, but decides not to say anything.

“Ah, no problemo, my friend!” Barney nods, already unlocking the door to the quiet classroom. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks a lot, Barn.” Hunk sighs in relief. He raises the bag. “I just need to set this down and I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

“Take all the time you need.” 

Hunk steps in and stops in front of Shiro’s desk.  He reaches into his bag and pulls out a box wrapped in simple pink wrapping paper, held together with clear tape and a velvet, red ribbon. He positions it right onto the middle of the desk.

He reaches into the bag again, but comes out with nothing. He double checks the bag again, finds nothing, and curses under his breath.

“Dammit, I forgot the note.” He mutters to himself, resisting the urge to smack his forehead. He sighs and pulls a piece of paper from one of the drawers and writes a short note. Biting his lip, he knows that it’s nowhere near what he wants to say (because his dumb ass forgot the flipping note at home), but he hopes that Shiro would get the right idea.

He slips it beneath the box and steps right back out, saying thanks to Barney and heads back to his classroom.

 

\----

 

Shiro, on the other hand, absolutely loves Valentine’s Day. The big reason behind that is that he’s a romantic at heart. He steps into the school at his usual time, completely dressed up in a pink shirt and a bowtie decorated in little red and pink hearts, with white suspenders attached to his light brown, rolled corduroys, complimented with red Chucks.

He bumps into one of his students on his way to his classroom.

“Jessica, good morning and Happy Valentine’s Day.” He greets with a smile, and the girl smiles back as she walks with him.

“Good morning, Mr. Shirogane, and Happy Valentine’s to you too.”

It wasn’t unusual for Shiro to see her inside the building so early in the morning – she takes her role as Student Body President rather seriously.

“You’re certainly festive today.” She comments, and Shiro huffs a laugh.

“You and everyone in this entire school know how I am with holidays.”

“Yeah, but it never beats Ms. Altan.”

Shiro gives a full laugh this time, remembering Allura in her very loud and very festive outfit she wore a week before Christmas break.

They stop right in front of his door and he unlocks it, allowing the student to enter first. He switches on the light and makes a beeline to the storage closet right next to the door to store his things except his work satchel. Glancing back, he opens his mouth to pick up the conversation again, but sees Jessica making her way from near his desk and towards the door.

“Oh, heading out already?”

“Um, yeah!” She says, her voice at nearly a squeak, and Shiro raises an eyebrow. “I just remembered that I needed to go to the computer room to pick up something. I’ll see you later Mr. Shirogane!”

“Alright have a great day, Jessica!”

“You too!” She exclaims, but pauses, “Oh, and you have a package on your desk.” With that, Shiro immediately turned his attention towards the said item on his desktop as the girl practically bolts out of the room.

Curious, because he knows for a solid fact that he did not leave anything on his desk before locking up his room for the night – he seldom does before leaving – he walks over to see what it is.

It’s a perfectly square box wrapped up in pink wrapping paper and a red velvet ribbon. Propped against the box was a red envelope with the name ‘ _HUNK_ ’ written on the cover. He freezes, feeling his cheeks rapidly warm up, feeling suddenly shy and nervous at what the envelope many contain.

 _‘Takashi, calm yourself. It’s probably just a generic and sappy Valentine’s Day card. Don’t read too much into it!’_ His mind echoes this thought and he takes a deep breath.

He reaches down and opens the envelope. “It’s okay,” he starts to himself, taking out the paper inside. “it’s probably nothing too serious…” His eyes start trailing the words on the paper, and his cheeks begin to get redder and redder until:

“Oh!” He breathes out softly.

_Oh._

 

\----

 

After composing himself, Shiro locks his classroom behind him and turns towards the staircase. Just as he makes the turn for the last set of stairs, he nearly crashes into Allura – which, upon taking a second look, would have resulted in an exploded mess of glitter.

“Shiro, you nerd!” She exclaims, “You’re all dressed up for Valentine’s! Looking like a modern-day Cupid, eh?” She nudges him and he blushes and rolls his eyes.

“Oh, hush. You have no room to make fun of me.” He gestures towards her deep red dress, complimented with a bright pink bow tied around her waist and flopping on her back like a pair of wings. Her hair is back to its silver color, piled high on her head with a heart shaped tiara adorning the crown of her head. Her neck supports a simple silver locket, complete with a matching set of silver earrings. He glances further down and smiles at the little Cupid outlines scattered across her stockings, and customized Keds.

She is a Valentine’s Day Fairy.

“It is a very cute outfit, though.” He says with a warm smile.

“Thanks! Lance helped me out with this one!” She says with a giggle, twirling around like a little girl. “He’s so sharp, I have no idea how I managed this long without the bugger.”

Shiro becomes quiet at the mention of Lance. He’s still a bit unsure on where things lay between himself and Hunk. Even with that note he read earlier.

Speaking of.

“So, um…Hunk left me a note.”

She stops twirling immediately and stares at him.

“What kind of note?”

“A note. _The_ Note.”

She blinks at him, and Shiro scowls at her.

“I’m not sure where you’re going with this…”

“ _Allura._ ”

“I just want to hear you say it out loud.”

“You’re impossible.” He deadpans. “He – ” Shiro lowers his voice. “ – he wrote me a confession note, ‘Lura. He really _does_ like me!”

Allura breaks out into a large grin, a tiny sound – sounding very suspiciously like the beginnings of a squeal – escapes from the confines of her pink painted lips.

Remarkably, she keeps herself mostly calm.

“Rather convenient timing, isn’t it?” Allura says excitedly, and Shiro ducks his head because it gets worse.

“It’s pretty convenient for the both of us, actually.” He squirms as Allura narrows her eyes just a bit.

“Takashi.”

“I wrote him a note too, and I’m planning on giving it to him at lunch time.”

At this, Allura gives a sudden scream and Shiro is badly startled.

“What the hell?” A voice floats up towards them from the hallway below, perhaps a student coming in very early.

“Mind your business!” Allura calls back, and redirects her attention to her highly embarrassed friend. “C’mon, let’s go to the lounge so I can yell at Matt about this.”

“Allura, please –” Shiro is dragged down the stairs by the excitable woman, and trails behind her through the halls until she practically kicks the door open, shouting for their friend.

Matt looks up with a startle – with Hunk muttering about never getting used to her loud entrances – and waves at Allura and Shiro.

Allura and Shiro freeze at the sight of Hunk.

“Hey! _Hey!_ ” She releases Shiro and makes a beeline to the mechanics’ teacher and hugs him. “You’re dressed up! I mean, the outfit could use a little more flair –”

“– Lance said the exact same thing last night.” Hunk interjects with great amusement.

“Really? See, I knew he’d feel the same – but you made the effort and that’s all that matters!”

Hunk gives a hearty laugh, and squeezes her back. “I _love_ your outfit, Miss Fairy.”

Allura giggles again and pulls away with a twirl. “Thank you, Hunk.” She answers with a bow. She looks over to Matt, who’s chatting with Shiro, and waves her hand.

“Matt.”

“What?” He pauses, both he and Shiro looking over at her call.

“We gotta talk later.”

“About…?”

“Really important stuff.” She gives Shiro a knowing look, and the man just blushes with a light scowl. “But right now, I gotta go. Later!” She pokes Hunk gently on his nose – reveling in his giggle – and turns on her heels to go.

“Oh no, wait!” She stops and whips around, reaching into the small pouch no one noticed tied around her left wrist. She pulls out her fist and –

“You have been blessed by the Valentine’s Day Fairy.” She says with utmost seriousness, while the glitter she threw into the air rained down around the room.

Without another word, she leaves.

Hunk stands there feeling stunned, while Shiro snorts and Matt goes about his business like nothing happened.

“Um,” Hunk begins.

“It’s like this every year.” Shiro says with a small smile, attempting to brush glitter out of his hair. “You should have seen her last year.” He gives up on his hair and glances over to Hunk, who was just smiling at him kindly.

“I’m sure it was quite a sight.”

Shiro felt his cheeks heating up as he imitates Hunk’s smile.

“Hey, Hunk?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the gift, it was really sweet of you.” Shiro thanks him sincerely and Hunk blushes something fierce.

“A-ah, I’m glad you liked it!” Hunk nods, and fiddles his fingers. “I figured you’d appreciate your favorites.”

“I see you ran into Allura.” Matt’s voice effectively cuts off their conversation, and they simultaneously look over to the door to see Kolivan stand in the doorway covered in glitter.

“I have been blessed by the Valentine’s Day Fairy.” He says in a deadpan.

 

\----

 

Hunk finishes setting up his desk as his homeroom students file in. He grins as they marvel at the decorative effort he made for their room.

“Oh my Bob, Mr. Garrett, this is so cute!” Says one student, holding up one of the many, tiny pink robots sitting on top of each table across the room. “Where did you buy this?”

“Not buy, made!” He answers, and a handful of his students stare at him.

“Like, you had someone make them, or…?”

Hunk shakes his head. “Nah, it’s my own work.”

There was a chorus of “ _What?_ ”, “ _Shut up, no way_ ” and “ _Are you serious?_ ” and Hunk couldn’t have been more amused.

“Yup, it’s all me!”

“That,” Cassidy begins, “is incredible.” She stopped in front of his desk.

Hunk thanks her and raises an eyebrow. “Is there a reason you’ve stopped up here?”

She blinks, then reaches into her backpack and pulls out a pair of heart-shaped alien antennae. She hands it to him in silent determination and he laughs, taking it from her and slipping onto his head.

“There. Does it look good?” He asks striking a pose, creating a room full of giggles.

“Perfect, Mr. Garrett!” She exclaims. “Oh, and before I sit down, Mr. Shirogane wanted me to give you back the book he borrowed.” She reaches into her bag again and pulls out a chapter book he lent Shiro about three weeks earlier.

“Ah, thank you Cassidy!” He nods and she goes to her seat. He turns to place the book onto his desk, when he notices something that resembles a pink envelope peeking from underneath the cover. Curious, he pulls it out and he’s fighting back a blush, realizing that this was a note from Shiro. He exhales through his nose and keeps calm, not wanting to give away anything in front of his class.

 

\----

 

The day goes on rather chaotically, and both Shiro and Hunk barely have time to breathe, let alone sit down at their individual desks for longer than a minute.

Neither one of them complains, in fact, both are having a great time – with the bonus of Allura’s trail of pink and red glitter.

 

\----

 

Lunchtime finally allows the downtime that Hunk sorely needs, especially after the chaos of last period. He sits back and closes his eyes to let the silence sink in.

Which is a solid five minutes.

“ _Hunk!_ ”

The tired teacher nearly dies from shock at Allura’s very loud entrance. The woman practically jumps on his desk in deep excitement.

“Hunk! Oh my god, Hunk!” She says, slapping her hands onto the desk top.

“Allura, please stop trying to kill me.” Hunk says, pressing a hand against his chest.

“No promises.” She barrels on. “Did you get it? Did you get it?”

“Get what?”

She makes a noise at the back of her throat. “Shiro!”

It takes a moment before it clicks. “Oh!” He flushes heavily and reaches into his drawer to pull out the envelope he received earlier. Allura immediately snatches it out of his hand and pulls it out to read.

He doesn’t bother to take it back, knowing fully well that she’d have her hands on it regardless.

“I’m still in shock, Allura.” He begins, biting his lip and messing with the hem of his shirt. “I mean, I didn’t think I’d have time to see him and really talk to him, but this is so great? I mean the timing is _totally_ Shiro and…Allura?” He glances over to see her squinting at the note with a deep frown on her face.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“Whomever sent you this note, wasn’t Shiro.”

Hunk’s heart drops. “Wait, what?”

He stands up and walks around his desk to get a closer look, and Allura shows him. “See here?” She points to a particular line, “He doesn’t structure his sentences that way.” She points to another line. “And he does _not_ loop his ‘L’s’ like that.”

They stare at each other, letting the realization sink in.

“You don’t think…” Hunk begins, and Allura wheezes. “Oh my god.”

They immediately rush out of his room and make a beeline straight to Shiro’s classroom.

 

\----

 

Shiro is sitting at his desk, re-reading the note he got that morning while a few students were sitting at the desks, watching one of his favorite movies, _Pretty in Pink._ On days like this, he opens his room to any student who have the same lunch period and don’t want to be in the lunchroom. He usually puts on a movie or a fun activity to keep them occupied until the next class period.

He hears a knock at the door and looks up to see Allura waving at him from the window in the door. He excuses himself and steps out, closing the door behind him, only to see Allura with a rather grim expression and Hunk looking worried.

He crosses his arms in worry. “Hey guys, is everything alright?”

Allura gestures for both men to follow her into a quieter portion of the hallway, and she then holds up the note before Shiro.

“Did you give this to Hunk?”

Shiro peers at it, and immediately shakes his head, frowning. “Although that is close to my handwriting, it isn’t me.” He comments, but then freezes. He looks over to them, the heavy weight of apprehension settling deep in his belly. “I found a note next to that package you left on my desk…was all of that really from you?”

Hunk sighs, rubbing the side of his neck with a frown. “The package? Yes. The note? No. I accidentally left mine at home.”

At this, Shiro’s heart sinks, but he keeps his expression neutral. “I guess, the students took it upon themselves to bring us together, huh?” He asks in a quiet, slightly bitter voice.

There is a moment of tense silence, as Shiro glances over to Allura, who’s face held a deep frown, wrinkles between her eyes, and a tremor traveling throughout her body.

“Allura–”

“I am going to _destroy_ those little shits!”

“Allura, _no!_ ” Hunk exclaims in alarm.

“’Lura, please.”

“I’m just – how can – _how can they do something like this? They’re playing with other people’s emotion because it’s **cute**?_ ” She is downright furious, the trembling in her body intensifies, and both men take an involuntary step backwards.

“Hey, look,” Hunk braves it and steps back forward. “Shiro and I will deal with this, please just calm down.”

She glances over to him, takes a deep breath, and the trembling stops. Her expression becomes frighteningly calm and both Hunk and Shiro are suddenly _terrified._

“I have faith that both of you will take care of this accordingly,” She begins, her voice just as calm as her physical demeanor. Shiro can _swear_ he hears a hint of venom somewhere deep in her tone. “Just know that your students will not get off very easily until the very last hour of the very last day of school.”

The bell rings and they split up before the hallway floods with eager students. Shiro bids them both a farewell, avoiding Hunk’s inquiring and very worried expression, and practically flees into his classroom.

 

\----

 

There is thick tension seeping from the cracks of the door to Hunk’s classroom. Anyone walking at either end of the hallway, or the top of the first flight of stairs can hear Hunk’s voice booming from the room. His words were clear, precise, and _cutting_ as he lectured his students about how wrong they were for that stunt they pulled.

“Why, in all honesty, did _any_ of you think that this was a brilliant idea? On top of that, how could any of you think that you’d get away with this?” His voice carries over the lowered heads of his ashamed students. “I’ve _never_ felt so disappointed in anyone in my entire life, and I can tell you that I’ve seen a _lot_ of disappointment.”

One student raises their hand to try to speak up.

“ _What is it, Cassidy?_ ” He all but snaps.

“U-um, I’m really sorry Mr. Garrett, for being so nosey, but it’s true.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “What are you talking about?”

“Mr. Shirogane. He actually does like you, he has so–”

“You need to stop it. _Now._ ”

“She’s not lying, Mr. Garrett.” Another student pipes up.

“ _Guys-_ ” He begins again, ready to snap at them once more. He takes a deep breath, but begins to falter as each student reinforce the idea, that Shiro legit likes him. He thinks back to all the times he interacted with Shiro, and it fucking _clicks._

He stares back at his students with a pale face and sits down to regain his composure. The students stop talking and stare at him rather anxiously, trying to gage his reaction. He exhales harshly, and blinks, as his mind processes everything at a mile a minute.

_‘There’s no way…’_

“Class, take out whatever homework you have for whatever class, and _don’t_ leave this room.”

“Where are you going, Mr. Garrett?” One student asks, and Hunk waves a hand.

“Just…I just need to go and clear something up.” He narrows his eyes and points an accusing finger at the group. “If any of you so much as open this door, I will not hesitate to add another month of detention to the one you already have.” He leaves the room at the sounds of the collective groans from his students.

 

\----

 

Shiro sits quietly at his desk as his students file into the classroom. He quietly observes them going to their desks, face passive as he withholds the greetings he normally has for them. The class settles down, and it remains silent for a few minutes, before Shiro speaks up.

“It has come to my attention that some of you thought it would be a good idea to play matchmaker behind my back.” There wasn’t a single tone of anger, but rather sadness underlying the neutrality in his voice. He holds up the red envelope and makes direct eye contact with Jessica – the student he spoke to earlier that day – who looks incredibly scared and guilty. “I understand that you guys mean well, really, I do, but this isn’t for you to handle, nor take initiative in. I am disappointed in all of you, especially you Jessica. You’re supposed to be the representative of the student body, but you chose to go against that and betray the trust and confidence of your teachers.” She looks away in shame, and Shiro continues as his chest begins to feel tight. “This cannot go unpunished and all of you will have at least a month’s worth of detention. Will that be a problem for anyone?”

Pure silence.

“Good.” He turns toward his desk to pick up the book they were going over that month. “Take out your copies and we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday.” He points to a student. “Ethan, read the first paragraph.”

For the first half of the class period, the students are engaging and participating to the best of their ability. Shiro notes that a few of them consistently glance over to him, maybe to gage his mental state, he doesn’t know. He does, however, level each of them a stern look and they quickly look away.

There is a knock on the door, and the class stops as Shiro looks over to see Hunk waving at him at the window. He hesitates at first, but sees the serious expression on the other man’s face. Ignoring the sudden murmurs amongst his students, he walks over to open the door, excusing himself.

“Keep reading, guys.” And he closes the door behind him.

Hunk pulls him aside and –

“Hey man, I’m _so_ sorry for the bullshit my students pulled on you.” He begins, sighing and looking more tired than anything.

“Hey, neither of us had any idea this was going to happen. I’m sorry my students did this too. It’s a good thing Allura caught on, huh?” He gives a halfhearted chuckle, but Hunk doesn’t laugh with him. In fact, the other man just looks at him with a calculating expression and Shiro blushes. “Is everything alright, Hunk?”

“Do you like me, Shiro?”

“I-I what?” Shiro is stunned and thrown _way_ off guard from that question. “Like a friend? Because–”

“No,” Shiro blanches. “romantically. I need to know if you are into me romantically.”

“Hunk, now’s not the time for this. There are people listening.”

Hunk doesn’t seem to care. “Tell me what is going on, Shiro. I just need to know if you do or don’t.”

“What does it matter?” Shiro snaps, finally fed up. “No one can seem to leave me the fuck alone when it comes to this, but, sure! Yes! I _do_ like you Hunk. I have since the beginning of the school year, and it only got bigger, and so much more and I was scared to say anything at first because I had no clue if you felt the same. I still am, Hunk. I’m _still_ scared, because you’re so good. _Too_ good for me and I never said anything because I’m not worthy of your attention or your affections and I’m just –” He clenches his fists. “– I’m not the one…” He tapers off into silence, refusing to look at the man before him.

“Well, you’re certainly saying something now.” Hunk says gently, and Shiro looks up to see a mixture of understanding and happiness on his face. “And to tell you the truth, you are more than good enough for me.”

Butterflies take up space within Shiro’s belly.

“H-how do you know that?” He dares to ask in a timid voice, and fights backing away when Hunk steps up to him and slides his fingers onto older man’s jawline, brushing his reddening cheeks with his thumbs.

“Because, Shiro,” Hunk’s voice deepens, supported by elation, tenderness, and _love._ “I’ve felt the same way about you since I first laid eyes on you and heard your beautiful voice.”

“Yeah?” Shiro barely gets out, nearly swooning at Hunk’s closeness and cologne.

“ _Yeah._ ”

Without another word, Hunk gently presses his lips against Shiro’s.

Shiro’s heart _sings_.

He immediately melts right into the kiss, gripping Hunk’s shirt and pulling him in closer to his body. Hunk complies and deepens the kiss. A deep sense of satisfaction makes its presence known deep in his chest and a dull roar echoes in his ears. When air is needed, they pull apart to breathe and press their foreheads together. He then realizes that the dull roar was cheering from the witnesses in the hallway, and from Shiro’s door.

Shiro blushes furiously, catching the same shy expression on the other’s face, and laughs.

“Well, um, I guess the whole school is gonna know by the end of today.” He says, and Hunk nods with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

They look at each other happily, before Hunk promises to see him again after school, kissing his fingers gently.

Shiro nods, and with that, they separate and go to their perspective classrooms.

 

\----

 

Shiro goes back to his room, his mind racing rapidly at what just transpired. He reaches his door and he hears scrambling feet and desks scraping the floor. He huffs a gentle laugh and opens the door to the sight of his students trying their best to keep their composure. He bites back a smile as he closes the door behind him and leans against it.

“ _What happened,_ is the question, yeah?”

Silence.

“You’ve got two minutes.”

A sea of hands suddenly appears in the air.

 

\----

 

Back in Hunk’s classroom, the same student raises her hand:

“Yes, Cassidy?”

“We heard loud cheering from upstairs…is everything alright?”

Hunk sighs with a smile. “Yeah, everything is fine.”

A beat of silence, and another hand goes up.

“Yes, Miguel?”

“Is Mr. Shirogane, okay?”

At this, Hunk’s smile widens. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s fine too.”

“So does this mean…”

Hunk scratches the back of his head with a blush. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…” He mutters in deep amusement. “…as of a few minutes ago, yes: Mr. Shirogane and I are officially dating.” He pauses. “There.”

The entire class _erupts_ and Hunk laughs out an “ _Oh my god!_ ”

 

\----

 

By the end of the day, the _entire_ school knows about this, and there is an even bigger feeling of excitement in the air.

Allura just _screams_ and throws glitter at them while Matt congratulates them and adding on “Finally! I thought I was going to die before seeing you two finally getting your heads out of your asses.”

And of course, Hunk and Shiro are embarrassed, while entwining their fingers together.

 

\----

**[14:00] Allura**

_The kids beat me to it._

**[14:10] StarBoy Lance**

_What._

_Wait._

_Seriously?_

**[14:11] Allura**

_Yup! Did the work for me…and they got in trouble for it, too. >:D_

_Oh, you, Keith, and I are gonna destroy Vegas together._

_Spring Break, foo._

**[14:11] StarBoy Lance**

_Soulmate!_

_YOU WON THE BET????_

_FUCK I’M DOWN._

_Also_

_How cute are the assholes being?_

**[14:20] Allura**

_[File Sent: 158KB]_

_Atrocious._

**[14:25] StarBoy Lance**

_[File Received]_

_I just threw up._

**[14:26] Allura**

_Hideous, I tell you._

_In all seriousness, I’m so glad they’re finally together._

**[14:26] StarBoy Lance**

_Same._

_They are so good for each other. <3_

 

\----

 

Later, Shiro and Hunk finally have time and some privacy in Shiro’s car, and they talk about the next steps in their budding relationship.

“I, I want to take things slow, Hunk.” Shiro says, biting his lip feeling completely unsure about himself. Hunk give his fingers an encouraging squeeze and he continues. “I don’t exactly have the best record for healthy relationships, and the last relationship I was in didn’t end too well.” He sighs. “It’s been three years, and I don’t want a repeat of it.”

Hunk nods and smiles at him in deep understanding. “Of course, Shiro, there is nothing to be scared or nervous about. We can take all the time we need for you to be comfortable.”

“Thanks Hunk.” Shiro responds, relief peppering his voice. “Will Lance be alright with this?”

“Lance?” Hunk is thoroughly bemused. “What do you mean? What does Lance have to do with this?”

“I-I mean, I don’t want to make things awkward between all three of us. Have you guys been polyamorous before?”

Hunk stares at him for a solid minute. “…Poly… _oh my god, you think Lance and I are together._ ”

It’s Shiro’s turn to be confused. “Wait, you’re not?”

“No, not at all!” Hunk starts laughing. “What made you think that?”

“When you introduced him, you called him your other half and there was really no clarification. And the way you two act around each other, reinforcing that, I just assumed…”

Hunk ducks his head, feeling completely embarrassed. “Oh my god, I am _so_ sorry. It’s no wonder you never made a move.” He glances back up and gives Shiro a bashful smile. “I mean, we _did_ have a short fling when we were roommates, but we decided to remain friends instead. It just worked out better that way.”

“Oh! So…” Shiro begins, blushing at Hunk’s cute expression. “You and Lance…”

“Are just friends.”

“Ah…so that means…”

“I am one-hundred percent all yours.” Hunk’s bashful smile turns roguish, and Shiro laughs, matching his new boyfriend’s expression.

“Then it certainly makes me all yours too.” He leans in and kisses him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What better way to finish this hell raiser of a fic than to write about Valentine's Day ON Valentine's Day?
> 
> Cheesy? Yup!
> 
> Cliched! Ya 'betcha!
> 
> This damn thing took me an entire year to finish up, and I had (have? I dunno, yet) in mind to do another part. It elaborates on Shiro and Hunk's relationship, and it's not as fluffy or whatever. Like, some rocky shit, but I don't even know if I'll bother, lmao.
> 
> But either way, I am grateful for [RedBowBuddha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBowBuddha) and her magical beta powers and THERE WAS ONE OTHER PERSON WHO LOOKED OVER THIS A MILLION YEARS AGO AND I FORGOT WHO IT WAS AND I FEEL SO BAD AKWJFALQWFENW;Q. 
> 
> And thank you for those who have bothered to make it this far. I don't know what you saw in this, but I'm glad it kept you here. 
> 
> Feed me your reviews.

**Author's Note:**

> A Hunk who swears while he works is my headcanon. Fight me.
> 
> EDIT: [Writing Tumblr](https://miishiiwrites.tumblr.com/) is a go.


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